Carson Palmer finished 7th in the NFL in pass yards per game with 275.3, behind only Brees, Brady, Stafford, Rodgers, Manning, and Rivers- all without question elite NFL quarterbacks. He also finished 8th in the NFL in percentage of passes for a first down. To round up the stats, Carson Palmer finished an impressive 4th in the NFL in yards per pass play with 8.5. All impressive statistics considering his baptism by fire into the Raiders offense this season.
The stats that interested me the most are the number of plays Palmer threw for over 20 and 40 yards. Palmer threw a pass over 20 yards 43 times this season. Averaging that out to a 16 game season and Palmer has 70 plays for over 20 yards, which would have been good enough for second in the NFL behind only Tom Brady. Even more impressive, despite only starting 9 games this season, Palmer tied for 5th in the NFL in number of pass plays over 40 yards with 11. Now averaging that out to a 16 game season put him at approximately 17 pass plays over 40 yards, a little more than 1 a game, and tying him for second in the NFL behind only Eli Manning.
I was interested in seeing how much Carson Palmer had left in the tank after his career ended in Cincinnati, I was skeptical because his play towards the end seemed to have fallen off. But Palmer with such an odd season has managed to secure himself alongside elite NFL QB's in terms of the clutch passing yardage (Big plays, first downs, etc).
With another year to get comfortable with a young receiving corps, I am incredibly exited to see what he can do with a full schedule.