Carson Palmer: 4 NFL Teams That Will Need Palmer's Services This Season

Carson Palmer is in the midst of the most action-packed retirement since Brett Favre.

He's made it perfectly clear he will not play for the Bengals. Cincinnati has made it perfectly clear it has no desire to trade or release him. We are smack-dab in the middle of a standoff and neither party seems to have an overwhelming need or desire to budge.

Carson Palmer is not at the level of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees or Philip Rivers. Because of that, the Colts, Patriots, Packers, Saints and Chargers would have no need for him.

The Colts actually might if Manning's unable to see the field, but since we can't predict injuries, we have to assume for the sake of argument that all quarterbacks will remain healthy.

Other teams don't have a quarterback of that caliber but are far too invested in their current guy to go to anyone else. So, Palmer wouldn't do them any good in 2011.

But there are plenty of teams who have uncertain quarterback situations. There isn't a single one of them that couldn't use Palmer. However, before we go in and look at the four teams that could most use Palmer, let's take a look at his career numbers.

Remember that he was drafted in 2003, but didn't play at all.

Season	Games	Yards	Completion Percentage	Touchdowns	Interceptions	Passer Rating
2004	13	2,897	60.9	18	18	77.3
2005	16	3,836	67.8	32	12	101.1
2006	16	4,035	62.3	28	13	93.9
2007	16	4,135	64.9	26	20	86.7
2008	4	731	58.1	3	4	69.0
2009	16	3,094	60.5	21	13	83.6
2010	16	3,970	61.8	26	20	82.4

Numbers courtesy of Pro-Football Reference.

What teams really couldn't use those numbers? For the sake of dwindling things down a little bit, we're only looking at teams that Carson Palmer could take to the playoffs.

The Carolina Panthers could use him to mentor Cam Newton for a year, but it wouldn't help them get over the edge.

San Francisco 49ers

Playing in the NFC West, any team has a chance. It's not likely that 7-9 will win the division again, but 9-7 is a distinct possibility.

The 49ers are unstable at quarterback. Alex Smith is locked in as the opening day starter, but he's been dreadfully inconsistent throughout his NFL career.

Behind him is Colin Kaepernick. He's talented, but an undeniable project pick that won't make an impact in 2011.

Palmer could come in and turn this team into the likely division winner. If they played in most other divisions in the NFL, the 49ers would be in the same boat as the Panthers, but in the NFC West, any team can win.

On that note.

Seattle Seahawks

The Rams are invested in Sam Bradford, while the Cardinals are invested in Kevin Kolb. The 49ers and Seahawks have giant question marks at the quarterback position.

If Palmer went to Seattle, he would be reunited with coach Pete Carroll, the man he won the Heisman Trophy with in 2002.

As it is, Tarvaris Jackson is the man in Seattle. This is the man that got repeatedly bumped for in all of the Brett Favre sagas. While Favre is a Hall of Fame quarterback, the fact the Vikings were willing to let him in with virtually no training camp two years in a row is a sign that they didn't have a lot of confidence in the man whose job Favre was taking.

Washington Redskins

Every team in the NFC East is a question mark. That includes the Philadelphia "Dream Team."

But even if we hand Philadelphia the division, Dallas, New York and Washington all have questions over their heads.

Washington's big question mark is around its quarterbacks: John Beck and Rex Grossman.

With Palmer under center, the Redskins could at least make a run at the playoffs. They do have talent in place and a strong defense.

Under Mike Shanahan, Palmer could thrive.

Miami Dolphins

This was a tossup between the Dolphins and Titans.

With the Patriots in their division, I don't see the Dolphins as realistic division winners.

Still, the Jets have some question marks, so the Dolphins could challenge them for a playoff spot.

As for the Titans, they are too invested in Matt Hasselbeck in 2011.

Chad Henne hasn't been anywhere near as bad in Miami as his critics would want you to believe. Still, he doesn't compare to Palmer.

Henne throws too many interceptions and not enough touchdowns. Palmer can be interception prone, but has never thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in a full season. Henne has been the starter for two full seasons and has had TD-INT ratios of 12:14 and 15:19.

Henne makes too many mistakes when they are playing games against the Patriots, Jets and remainder of the AFC. Palmer makes them a playoff contender. With Henne, they're looking at another season in the 5-11 to 8-8 range.

Palmer has his flaws. He's never won a playoff game and has only taken the Bengals to the playoffs twice. One of those losses came after the 2005 season, when he was hurt on a hit from Pittsburgh's Kimo von Oelhoffen.

The talk was that he was never the same quarterback after that injury. Look at the numbers—he came back fine and did the same after the 2008 season.

None of the teams mentioned above are Super Bowl contenders. All the teams that are Super Bowl contenders have better quarterbacking situations.

But Palmer would improve every one of those teams. If he was the quarterback for any of them, they would be playoff contenders at worst.