The Cardinals kicked off their organized team activities on Tuesday and that gave quarterback Carson Palmer a chance to do some on-field team drills for the first time since tearing his ACL last season.
Palmer took 12 snaps during the 7-on-7 portion of practice and said it felt “good to be around other humans” even if he thought he was rusty throwing the ball after such a long spell out of the pocket. Palmer was on the sideline when the team went 11-on-11 because he still hasn’t been fully cleared, although Palmer said he’s working to convince the medical staff that he’s ready for more.
“I’ve been politicking with the trainers and the physical trainers because 12 plays just isn’t enough for me and I need more action out there,” Palmer said, via ESPN.com.
Coach Bruce Arians said that there would be no change to Palmer’s workload until next month’s minicamp at the earliest, but indicated that the team would be fine holding Palmer back from full team work until training camp.
“I’m not afraid if he doesn’t get out here as long as he’s throwing 7-on-7,” Arians said. “I know he can hand it off. He does all the bootleg drills in warm ups so the rest of it he can handle. The 7-on-7, we blitz enough in that and we give him enough looks so he’s getting prepared.”
Given the memories of how things went south for the team offensively last season after Palmer was injured, the cautious approach figures to remain in place until Palmer’s got a totally clean bill of health.
