Cardinals’ Carson Palmer: We’ve come a long ways

Study. Practice. Review.

It’s how Carson Palmer has lived his life every day for the past eight weeks, ever since the Cardinals’ first on-field activity with voluntary veteran minicamp in May.

“We are all learning so much every day,” Palmer said Wednesday. “We’ve put in so much and we’ve repped it so many times that things are definitely really starting to click. There are certain concepts and certain plays that we are really getting good at and there’s a bunch that we still need to work at.

“But you can’t put a grade or quantify exactly where we’re at or how far we’ve come, but we’ve come a long ways.”

Palmer, 33, has received a crash course in a brand new offense that has him excited about what will be his 11th NFL season.

“There’s some really good stuff in the running game,” he said. “There’s some really good schematic things in the protections. There’s a lot of opportunities to throw the ball down the field, but there’s also a lot of opportunities to get completions and consistently move the chains.”

The Cardinals are counting on exactly that.

While it doesn’t fall all on Palmer’s shoulders, he’ll be the one mainly responsible to fix what ailed the team a year ago: 15.6 points per game (31st out of 32 teams) and 263.1 yards per game (32nd).

“I won’t be taking any time off and I don’t think guys will be or should be taking time off,” he said with one final practice remaining before the team breaks until training camp in six weeks.

Palmer said his time will be well spent, planning to train not only at home in Southern California but also in Minnesota, joining Larry Fitzgerald for what has become an annual offseason regimen for the Cardinals wide receiver.

“Watch all of these practices. Study all of these practices. Study all of the installs,” Palmer said of his summer checklist. “And then go back over some games from last year when Coach (Bruce Arians) was in Indianapolis and watch them play against division opponents, some of the teams that we’re going to play this upcoming season, so a lot of work just getting ready for training camp.

“We don’t have that much time, that first game isn’t that far away.”

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