Arizona Cardinals’ Carson Palmer: ‘We have to take advantage of this roster’

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer is probably getting sick of being asked how he’s feeling.

The 35-year-old is heading into his 13th NFL season, but is also coming off his second surgery to repair a torn ACL.

As obvious as the question is, it’s also a pertinent one.

“Awesome, awesome,” Palmer told Doug and Wolf Thursday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “Things have been going great, I’ve got a long way to go. I’ve put in a lot of hours and a lot of work and got myself to where I am now where I can kind of participate in some of the 7-on-7 stuff (in OTAs).

“I’m happy with where I’m at and pleased, but like I said, I’ve got a lot of work to do and a long way to go and I still have enough time to be ready to roll once training camp gets here.”

Palmer, who suffered the knee injury in Week 10 last November in a 31-14 win over the St. Louis Rams, has kept a positive attitude about his second major rehabilitation. He’s also bullish on the Cardinals’ upcoming season, but realizes the window for success in the NFL is a small one.

“You look at our team and our roster and the way things are built and this is the year we have to take advantage of it,” he said. “This is a year that we feel we have a good team and we don’t want to sit around and talk about playing in Super Bowls and all of those things, but you look at our team, you look at the experience we have, you look at the depth we have, it’s a very well-constructed roster.

“You just know that rosters don’t stay like this for very long. We have to take advantage of this roster.”

Palmer doesn’t know when the end of his career will be, but he doesn’t believe that he’ll be one of those quarterbacks that hangs on in the league until he reaches his 40s.

“You get to your 13th year in the league, and you know there’s not going to be 18 or 19,” he said. “I know there’s a couple of guys that have done that, but I’m not going to do that.”

Palmer signed a four-year contract extension just days before suffering the knee injury that ended his season. He’s not thinking about that. The veteran is solely focused on what lays ahead in 2015.

“Really, you look at it as one year at a time. I’m going into year 13 and there’s no reason to look past this year,” he said. “That’s why I have such an urgency about me and I’m putting urgency on the guys around me. If you’re a young guy, you can’t look at it like ‘well, this is year three for me, but I’ll be around for year four and hopefully I’ll be in the league in year five.’

“You’ve got to take advantage of every year.”