Oakland Raiders: 10 Best Quarterbacks In Franchise History
By Kevin Saito
November 29, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer (3) celebrates after the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi
Palmer is another of those who played with the Raiders for a short time. But he was effective, albeit in spurts. He was certainly more effective than a lot of other former Raiders quarterbacks. But it still seems somewhat strange to include a player who was with the team for two seasons and made just 24 overall starts on a “best of” list. That tells you something about the dearth of quarterbacking talent in Oakland’s past.
In just 24 starts in silver and black, Palmer amassed 6,771 yards on 61 percent passing. He also tossed 35 touchdowns as he helped reignite a Raiders offense that had been pretty dormant for a while.
Palmer didn’t get a whole lot of wins during his Raiders tenure – he finished just 8-16 as a starter – but he certainly provided some excitement.
In retrospect, the acquisition of Palmer may have been one of the factors that led to the firing of former head coach Hue Jackson. To pry Palmer out of Cincinnati, the Bengals bilked a first round draft pick in
2012 as well as a second rounder in 2013.
Watching him play in Arizona, and seeing the sort of success he’s currently having gives you some insight into why Jackson would trade so much for Palmer. Unfortunately, it just never panned out in Oakland.
Even still, he’s miles ahead of some of the other quarterbacks who have (dis)graced the Raiders uniform. He threw for a lot of yards, threw a lot of touchdowns, and got people excited about Raider football again. At least for a little while. And that earns him the ninth position on this list.
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