Carson Palmer on 33rd Team: ‘The future is bleak right now’ for Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals are in a dark spot right now sitting at 4-10, just over a week removed from their franchise quarterback tearing his ACL on Monday Night Football.

Cardinals Ring of Honor member Carson Palmer joined Trey Wingo and The 33rd Team to discuss the current state of Arizona’s situation on and off the field.

“It’s tough to watch,” Palmer told Ringo. “The future is bleak right now when you really look at it and the timeline of things. Kyler blows out his knee out in the middle of December, you got to throw in nine, maybe 12 months in the process for any hiccups.

“He’s on a short timetable, they have a lot of positions they need to fill, they’ve been banged up everywhere, they have lost guys in the front end and back end. It’s just been one of those years. Now, as a fan, this has been really hard to watch … I know every job in the NFL is attractive, but that’s not that attractive of a job right now.”

Palmer mentioned how it is uncertain whether the coach or general manager will be back next season. He said he’s worried about how the team’s history of firing coaches repeatedly can make a potential opening for either coach or GM job less attractive.

The Cardinals fired head coach Steve Wilks after one season in 2018 and this past offseason — despite reasons to be wary — extended both Kliff Kingsbury and Steve Keim. Getting out of those agreements would not help.

Keim is currently away from the team due to health-related issues, while Kingsbury was already on the hot seat after the Cardinals stumbled to end last season and haven’t found positive momentum in 2022.

Murray also signed a five-year, $230 million extension to keep him with the Cardinals through 2028, putting pressure on a potential new coach who would need to work with him and a front office executive working with tightening salary flexibility.

Arizona currently holds the third-worst record in the league, but with a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Los Angeles Rams, the Cardinals sit at the No. 4 spot in the 2023 NFL Draft heading into Week 16.