Carson Palmer Contract & Salary: Huge New Deal for QB

Carson Palmer has helped lead the Arizona Cardinals to an NFL-best 7-1 start, and the Cardinals decided to reward their veteran quarterback last week with a three-year, $50 million contract extension that will keep him in Arizona through the 2017 season.

CBS Sports’ Jason LaConfora broke the news Friday, and the team later announced the deal.

The team didn’t announce the terms of the deal, but ESPN’s Chris Mortenson was among the reporters tweeting out some details.

According to Mortensen, the deal has $20.5 million in guaranteed money, all of which comes in the next two years. The final two years of the deal — 2016 and 2017 — are not guaranteed.

As sports accountant Robert Raiola pointed out on Twitter, Palmer will reach at least $138 million in career earnings by the end of the deal. (Hat tip to the NFL Network’s Ian Rappoport for re-tweeting Raiola’s tweet.)

As plenty of people have pointed out, that’s a lot of money for a 34-year-old who’s never won a playoff game. But when you look at Palmer’s success relative to other recent Arizona quarterbacks, it’s not hard to understand why the Cardinals wanted to lock Palmer up.

Here’s a look at his stats compared to his most recent predecessors via ESPN.

The Cardinals, who lead the defending champion Seahawks by two games in the NFC West and the Eagles and Lions by a game for the best record in the NFC, host the Rams on Sunday.

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