Carson Palmer trade to Cardinals to be complete soon

With the trade to acquire Matt Flynn complete, the Raiders are now looking to deal Carson Palmer.

It has always been the Cardinals who were most interested in Palmer's services. Cardinals new coach, Bruce Arians, likes big armed quarterbacks and Carson Palmer fits the bill. The Cardinals currently have just Drew Stanton at quarterback and are facing a very weak 2013 quarterback class.

The deal to send Palmer to Arizona is said to be finalized as soon as today. The first holdup was said to be the Cardinals were hoping to lower Palmer's salary just as the Raiders were. And according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, he is supposed to be taking a paycut once he joins the Cardinals.

I'm hearing Carson Palmer, whose contract called for $13M in Oakland, will end up making $8M with the Cardinals

— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) April 1, 2013

The compensation in the trade has not been released but early estimations have it at a round 4 or 5 pick this year and compensatory pick in 2014.

If the reports of the compensation given up for Flynn are true and the estimation on what Raiders would receive in the Palmer deal are accurate, the Raiders would have received more than they gave up in trades while not losing any picks in this year's draft.

A trade doesn't send away dead money on a players' contract unless the two teams agree upon it. Otherwise, the Raiders would still have the same dead money from Palmer. That combined with Flynn's contract would only save the Raiders $775,000 in salary cap this season unless the team was indeed able to get Flynn to redo his deal to lower his cap figure.