Carson Palmer: Oakland Raiders Should Not Let Quarterback Decide Fate

All week long, Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson has been very quiet about who he will start at quarterback on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now we know the reason he has not given an answer: he did not know.

Colleen Dominguez reported that the Raiders will let Carson Palmer decide whether or not he will start in his first game with the team.

Many believe that the veteran quarterback will play at some point in the game regardless of who starts, but this situation does not send a good message to the team.

Hue Jackson is in his first year as an NFL head coach. He needs to show that he is calling the shots, and that no player is more important than the team.

By trading a first-round and conditional second-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals for a player that has not seen the field in about 10 months, he already gave a lot of power to that player. Palmer is already a player that is highly valuable to the Raiders to make the trade worth it. 

What makes things even worse in this situation is that Carson Palmer quit on his previous team. He told the Bengals that he would retire if he was not traded, and spent the first six weeks of the 2011 season keeping true to his word.

Now his new coach, Hue Jackson, is entrusting the future of his team to a player he has not seen first-hand since 2006, when he was the Bengals offensive coordinator.

The best excuse for the Raiders is that alternatives are not good. Kyle Boller has never proven to be a quality NFL quarterback, and Terrelle Pryor is a rookie who is just returning from suspension. It is very possible that Palmer is the best quarterback option the team has.

Also, Carson Palmer had his last really good season when Hue Jackson was on the sidelines.

Still, the biggest thing any player has to do when joining a new team is prove himself to his teammates. When a team mortgages its future for a marquee player, the men in the locker room expect a certain level of success to come as a result.

When the Oakland Raiders are giving this much responsibility to a brand new quarterback, it will alienate this new player and put a lot more pressure on him. A team looking to make the playoffs does not need this type of distraction.