Carson Palmer has come back from two ACL surgeries and has learned a new offense on multiple occasions.
But he’s never done both at the same time.
That’s part of the reason why Palmer has been so impressed by how far Sam Bradford has come in the nine months he’s been with the Eagles.
“You have to take your hat off to Sam,” said Palmer in a conference call with Philadelphia media on Wednesday. “He’s come into a completely different style of everything, run game, in the shot gun, different players, different play calls, totally different tempo. I mean, totally different change. And he’s really picked it up fast. I think every quarterback in the league would look at it and say ‘man, he’s done a great job in such a short time.’ But two years would be getting it fast. I really think it’s a three-year thing.”
Palmer, who is having arguably the best season of his career at age 35, is in his third year under Bruce Arians in Arizona and said he’s just finally starting to really understand the offense. Bradford, meanwhile, is nine months into his time with Chip Kelly and the Eagles.
Palmer and Bradford were both No. 1 overall draft picks and possessed incredibly high skill levels. They have both gotten over two ACL tears and subsequent surgeries. And they have both had to learn new offenses on the fly during their careers.
“I got traded in Week 6 of a season and played the next week, which is really, really difficult, so I know what it’s like to be force fed everything and have to pick it up fast. I know how hard it is,” Palmer said. “I don’t care how good you are, how well you throw, how smart you are, it just takes time. It takes time to just get the footwork down and the rhythm of the throws. And it takes a ton of time and a ton of reps to get confident in the guys around you and trust in those guys and trust that they’re going to break right here and trust that they’re going to take this angle and catch this ball. You just kind of have to hit fast forward on everything. ...
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“There’s just some bumps and bruises you have to take and some lumps on the way and some mistakes you have to make to get better to learn why and to see why. I know how that is.
“And coming off a knee, I know how that is. So that’s why I said, you have to take your hat off to Sam because he’s done a ton in a very short amount of time.”
Palmer had several years in between his two ACL surgeries, but his first was very significant, and at the time, looked like it might be career-threatening.
Palmer has given advice to many players who have suffered ACL injuries; his biggest piece of advice is to find a good physical therapist who challenges them. While Bradford recognized Palmer as someone who had come back from a serious ACL injury, he never spoke to him throughout his recovery processes.
“He’s been a really great player for a long time,” Bradford said. “I think it’s been pretty cool to see someone like him come back from the ACL and have the success he’s had and just prove that it can be done regardless of what people say or think.”
Palmer and Bradford are both coming off of their second ACL injuries this season. Palmer, however, was cleared much earlier in the league year and even participated in his team’s minicamp.
“[Palmer] was going to get in that huddle with his teammates,” Arians said. “Basically, I threatened anybody that got near him that they would get cut on the spot.”
Bradford was brought along much slower when he was brought to the Eagles. He barely played in the preseason, and he was still trying to learn Kelly’s offense.
In the last two weeks, Bradford has looked much more comfortable in Kelly’s system. It’s perhaps a product of extended time in the offense, paired with time removed from his knee injury.
Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, who once suffered an ACL injury himself, said it takes time.
“There is a difference between being healthy enough to play, which we all become, and then after you play a while, you get more and more comfortable with it,” Shurmur said. “I think a lot of guys will say, ‘Hey, my second year back from those type of injuries, I feel much better.’ I think that's fair. The further you get away from the actual injury, the surgery and the rehab, the more and more comfortable you are with everything.”