Carson Palmer Trade: A Move the Oakland Raiders Had to Make

In my memorial column about Al Davis, I explained how above everything else, Mr. Davis was a gambler.

Well it turns out Hue Jackson’s got a bit of gambler in him, too.

Make no mistake about it, the Raiders trade for Carson Palmer is a huge gamble. If they’d exchanged two six-round picks for the embattled quarterback (like the Vikings did to get Donovan McNabb), it’d be as big a no-brainer as the Aaron Curry trade was.

However, the Raiders gave a king’s ransom to the Bengals, who will end up with no worse than a first-round pick in 2012, and a second-round pick in 2013. The 2013 pick becomes a first-rounder if the Raiders win a playoff game.

But I like it.

I don’t love it, but it is a move that had to be made.

When I broke down the Raiders quarterback options on Monday, I took a look at Kyle Boller’s numbers, and came to the same conclusion as most of the NFL: Boller is terrible. David Garrard is hurt. Who else could the Raiders turn to?

This team has enough talent to make the playoffs, and the division is very weak; but how long will it remain that way? The Chiefs and Broncos pose no threat right now, but they won’t be bad forever. The Chargers will always underperform because of their buffoon head coach, Norv Turner, but he won’t be there forever, either (although I hope he gets a lifetime contract).

Plus, with the Raiders off to their best start in almost a decade (4-2), they’ve got a smooth path to the postseason. They still get to play Miami, Denver, Minnesota and Kansas City (twice); combined record of those phenomenal opponents? 4-17. If they can win all of those games, they only have to find 1-2 wins against the rest of the schedule, and the Silver and Black can be 10-6 or even 11-5. I know, I can’t believe it either.

The Raiders have plenty of talented skill position players on offense. The offensive line has been amazing, and the defense is getting better. But without Jason Campbell, they could have ended up looking like the Minnesota Vikings. Have you seen the Vikings play? The NFL owes their season ticket holders full-season refunds, because no one should be subjected to that kind of horror.

So Jackson made a big gamble by mortgaging a bit of the future for a quarterback right now. He wants to just win right now, baby.

Jackson knows Palmer extremely well, having been his offensive coordinator at USC and later the wide receivers coach when Palmer was in Cincinnati. Clearly, Jackson has seen enough to believe in Palmer. So far, there’s not a big move Jackson has made that’s gone wrong; therefore, I’m willing to gamble with the coach, too.

According to Shutdown Corner at Yahoo! Sports, Palmer has been working with a trainer all season to stay in shape, and apparently he looks great. As I also explained before, the job of the Raiders quarterback is about as easy as it gets in the NFL: complete around 15 passes, don’t make any stupid mistakes and hand the ball to your studs (Darren McFadden and Michael Bush).

Palmer has had a mediocre last few seasons, but compare his worst year (2010) to Campbell’s season in 2011: Palmer had a better completion percentage (61.8 to 60.6) and a slightly worse quarterback rating (82.4 to 84.2), while throwing for nearly 4,000 yards and 26 touchdowns. For my money, Palmer is a more talented quarterback and will be an upgrade over Campbell almost right away.

The time is now, Raider Nation. Jackson believes this team has what it takes to be playing in January, and with Palmer in the fold, so do I. So get ready, Raider fans: we’re going back to the playoffs.