Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer tore his ACL in early November and had surgery a short time later to kick off the long rehab process.
Given the timing of the injury and the general timeline for players returning from torn ACLs, training camp looked like a reasonable point to expect Palmer to return to action. On Tuesday, though, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said that Palmer could be making his return a bit more quickly.
During an appearance on Sirius XM NFL Radio with Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan, Arians said that Palmer is ahead of schedule at this point in his rehab from the knee injury. As a result, Arians says that he’s thinking about a return for June’s mandatory minicamp and he’s leaving the door open for Palmer to get some work in during OTAs as well.
Any discussion about actual return dates is obviously premature at this point since there’s a lot for Palmer to do before he can seriously contemplate getting back on the field. Having him for some part of the offseason work would be great, but being ready for the regular season is the only goal that really matters and Palmer can accomplish that whether he’s on the field this spring or not.