Arizona Cardinals’ QB Carson Palmer no longer thinks about nerve injury

TEMPE, Ariz. — Carson Palmer is no longer injured.

Well, at least he’s no longer injured to the point where he is unable to practice or do what a normal, healthy quarterback would do throughout the week.

“It’s just nice to practice and be able to study the night before and know what you’re putting in, and then go out and test it and practice and kind of have some trial and error of different coverages, different plays,” Palmer said Wednesday. “It’s nice to be psychologically prepared because you know you’ve done it in practice and you know you’ve repped those plays and had those looks.

“I just look forward to today’s practice, tomorrow and Friday and getting ready to play Sunday.”

Palmer is preparing for his third game since returning from a nerve injury that sidelined him for three of the team’s matchups. He did not put in a full week of practice prior to facing Washington, and last week he was listed as “limited” for two of the team’s practices in preparation for the Oakland Raiders.

His name was nowhere to be found on Wednesday’s Week 8 injury report, indicating his shoulder is fine and the issue is a thing of the past.

“Yeah, knock on wood hopefully we don’t have to talk about that one anymore,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said, while actually knocking on the wooden table he was seated at.

According to the 34-year-old Palmer that’s essentially the case, as he said he’s at a point in the recovery process where he does not even think of the nerve.

“Yeah, I’m there right now,” he said. “I’m actually able to lift now, upper-body, which I wasn’t able to lift for I think five weeks is what it was. Definitely had a lot of atrophy so starting to get some strength back and starting to put in a little extra weight on top, which is good. You get sick of going in the weight room and not being able to do things and that was a month of that. It’s good to be doing that stuff again.”

In two games since his return, Palmer has completed 50-of-77 passes for 503 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. On the season, he is completing 66.1 percent of his passes for 807 yards with six touchdowns and just one pick. He is not quite back to the player he was before the injury, but he gets a little closer with every day that passes.

“It’s throwing strength and all those things come with throwing, and to get that back it takes a couple weeks,” he said. “It doesn’t take months, it doesn’t take a month — it takes a couple weeks. It’s hard to say right now, but I would think going into Dallas week I’d feel close to 100 percent.”

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