QB Report: Carson Palmer, Tim Tebow Lead Pack of New Starters in Week 7

Six teams will be starting new quarterbacks this week.

Here are the more interesting storylines involving those teams.

Oakland Raiders

The 4-2 Raiders lost Jason Campbell to a broken collarbone. He’s out for the season.

Fortunately, they were able to pry Carson Palmer from Bengals owner Mike Brown for a first-round pick in 2012 and a conditional pick in 2013.

It's a hefty price for the 31-year-old, but the Raiders feel that their time to win is now and that Palmer is the guy to help them win.

Palmer had been absent from the Bengals due to a holdout, so he hasn’t played or practiced since last season.

According to ESPN.com, Palmer is still expected to start on Sunday against the Chiefs.

The Raiders are one game behind the Chargers in the AFC West, and they don’t want to risk a loss by starting backup QB Kyle Boller.

Palmer may be rusty, but he couldn’t have picked a better opponent than the Chiefs to start a comeback. They've allowed the most points per game (30) in the NFL.

Denver Broncos

Broncos fans have been chanting for Tim Tebow since the preseason. 

Kyle Orton isn’t that bad of a starter, but since former head coach Josh McDaniels led the 2009 Broncos to a 6-0 start, the team has gone just 7-24. Orton has been the starting QB for most of that stretch, and it’s clear that the fans want a new face of the franchise.

Who better than Tebow?

When he took the field against the Chargers last week, the whole mood in Denver changed. Aside from the fact that he nearly led Denver to a last-minute victory, Tebow completely electrified the crowd.

Neither John Fox nor executive vice president John Elway figured Tebow into their future plans. They didn’t even draft him. McDaniels did.

It’s undeniable that Tebow possesses great determination and a desire to win. Those are intangibles that you can't teach an athlete.

That has to intrigue Fox and Elway.

Washington Redskins

The Redskins are also in the thick of their division race.

Washington head coach Mike Shanahan surely doesn't want to lose any ground in the cutthroat NFC East, so he pulled the plug on the recently struggling Rex Grossman.

The Redskins will start 30-year-old John Beck in Charlotte against the Panthers. Beck hasn’t started a game since his rookie year in 2007 when he was with the Dolphins.

Fans and experts saw this coming from Shanahan. The head coach openly spoke about the competition between Grossman and Beck in the preseason.

Grossman has only started a full season once—for the 2006 Bears—and he has never put up great numbers.

Beck knew his competition, and I think he has been preparing for this opportunity all season.

It’s never easy to succeed on the road, but I think Beck can achieve some success against a porous Carolina defense. They allow around 27 points and 140 rushing yards per game.

If Shanahan's run-game is effective, Beck will have chances to use play-action and make some big throws down the field.

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings thought they could squeeze some good play out of 34-year-old QB Donovan McNabb.

They were wrong.

Averaging 171 passing yards and totaling only four touchdowns passes in six games has McNabb on the bench.

Rookie Christian Ponder will make his first NFL start against the 6-0 Packers.

The twelfth overall pick in this year’s draft didn’t do too much last week. He completed 9-of-17 passes for 99 yards in the fourth quarter of a 39-10 loss to the Bears.

Luckily for him, this week’s game is at home. Ponder should try to concentrate on simply executing the plays that are called. He has to avoid feeling flustered by the defending Super Bowl champs.

If he does that, he could have a productive day.