Carson Palmer Not Expected To Receive $13 Million Salary in 2013

Earlier this week a report surfaced that the Oakland Raiders were prepared to give Carson Palmer his $13 million base salary for the 2013 season. While the report from NFL.com took a half in-half out approach by saying the Raiders were paying Palmer “for now”, Raiders beat writer Steve Corkran tweeted that the Raiders actually “for sure” not being paying Palmer that figure next season.

Not only is $13 million excessive for even a second tier quarterback, there is a growing belief that the Raiders will spend the third overall pick in this April’s draft on West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith. If the Raiders do indeed follow through with this rumored plan, that about seals the deal with Palmer and his bloated salary for next season.

But if the Raiders don’t draft Smith and avoid taking a quarterback in the third round (they don’t own a second round pick), the debate again becomes relevant about what Oakland should do about Palmer. For now, it seems the Raiders are simply putting off having to think about it, as even the crazed brain of Al Davis wouldn’t compute giving Palmer $13 million at this stage in his career.

So the next logical step is to restructure his deal, something that has repeatedly been reported upon but has yet to happen. Cutting Palmer is another option, but the Raiders would have to be completely invested in Terrelle Pryor in order to do that, something that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.

Even though it has been reported that Palmer will be paid his $13 million salary “for now”, the fact of the matter remains that the Raiders would have to be crazier than they are to actually do that, and we haven’t heard the last of this discussion this offseason.