Carson Palmer

Childhood & High School

Carson Palmer was a student at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Rancho Santa Margarita, California. He played both basketball and football but eventually played football full-time. As a seventh grader, Palmer already had extraordinary size uncommon for boys his age, so his father enrolled him at a private school in Orange County where he was taught by Bob Johnson, the quarterback guru.

As a freshman, he was the freshman team’s quarterback. He later led the team to the California state title in his high school junior year. As a junior, he passed for 2,100 yards and 25 touchdowns and as such received offers from Florida. Notre dame, Colorado, and USC. As a high school senior, Palmer was a top player in his high School, with a quarterback rating of 203.9. Palmer was one of the athletes enlisted to the All-CIF, even though he had fractured his foot.

Palmer was ranked No. 6 high school quarterback by SuperPrep.

College

As a college freshman at the University of South California, Palmer completed 18 of 31 passes for 279 yards leading to the Trojans’ win of 33-10 against Washington. Forget about the 40 time drill. He started the final five games for the Trojans and led the team to an 8-5 record, as well as a trip to the Sun Bowl.

He later broke the school’s record for the highest number of passing yards, passing touchdowns, and completions, in one season. He won Heisman Award in 2002, becoming the first quarterback and fifth player from his college to win that award. His college record was 1,569 attempts, 927 completions, 49 interceptions, 11,818 passing yards, and 72 passing touchdowns.

The highlights of his career can be found here:

NFL Draft

The Cincinnati Bengals grabbed Palmer with the first pick, after which he joined an elite group of Pac-10 passers. As a rookie, he sat, watched, and learned during game and practice throughout his rookie year. However, in February of 2004, before training camp, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis made Palmer the starter and he started 13 games. As at that year, Palmer’s had already recorded 263 completions in 432 attempts, with 18 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

He recorded 18 passes of 27, an interception and double touchdown passes in his week 1, 21 passes of 38, 1 interception but zero touchdown passes in week 2. He struggled to complete 25 passes of 52 in week 3. By week 12 and 13, he threw 4 touchdown passes and 3 touchdown passes respectively. At the National Football League's Combine, Palmer ran 4.65 seconds 40 yard dash time and made a 33-inch vertical jump. Highlights can be viewed here.

2015 NFL Season

Palmer was fined $11,576 for making a crotch-chopping gesture considered inappropriate to the Seattle Seahawks fans in week 10 towards the end of the 39-32 win.

He recorded 35 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He earned his win by completing 25 passes out of 41 for 349 yards, 2 interceptions, and 3 touchdowns.

Palmer was in the competition for the National Football League's MVP award of 2015 which he lost.

2016 NFL Season

He signed a contract extending his contract for a year on August 2016. His average annual salary is $24.35 million. He was able to start 15 games but as a result of a concussion he suffered the week prior to that, he missed a game in week 6.

Personal life

Palmer is a devout Christian. His estimated annual income as at 2015 was $29 million. He was recently attacked on twitter following his performance at the game last January. His twitter handle is @carsonpalmer.