Carson Palmer's Fantasy Trade Value, Updated Outlook After Week 3

Carson Palmer’s erratic play and tough schedule makes it nearly impossible to rely on him as your fantasy football quarterback moving forward.

Playing in the NFC West is tough for fantasy quarterbacks, but the Arizona Cardinals’ other scheduled games don’t do fantasy owners of the journeyman quarterback any favors.

That’s especially true if you’re planning on making the playoffs. The Cards have the Tennessee Titans in Week 15 following by divisional matchups against Seattle and San Francisco in their final two contests.

Palmer was a serviceable option last season but finished 18th in fantasy points at the position. While he’ll have a couple of games that he absolutely goes off, he’s prone to commit turnovers—four interceptions and two fumbles already in 2013—and drive fantasy owners mad trying to predict which games those will be.

He’s a decent bye week fill-in option, if needed, but you shouldn’t be starting him most weeks unless your starter gets injured, you’re in a two-quarterback league, or you waited too long to draft a QB and he’s your best chance to win.

My condolences, if that’s your plight.

As a trade chip, you might be able to help secure a player at a position of need by dangling him out there as part of a package deal, but nobody in their right mind would be willing to part with a more consistent quarterback for him.

You could wait to trade him until he explodes for a big game, but it’s hard to see when that could happen. Arizona has Tampa Bay, Carolina, San Francisco and Seattle on its schedule over the next four weeks.

One thing you shouldn’t do is give up any significant players in order to acquire him. Trading for Palmer is out of the question, and even picking him up off the waiver wire is a stretch.

Sell, sell, sell; the Carson Palmer hype train has left the station on the 3:10 to Irrelevancyville.