Starting Over
By Peter King
SI.com
Carson Palmer and David Carr have had very different NFL experiences. But SI.com's Peter King says the former No. 1 picks face similar offseason challenges to rebuild their carreers.
I saw the first picks of the 2002 and '03 drafts recovering from trauma last week -- David Carr from never winning, and Carson Palmer from major knee reconstruction. Herewith, dispatches from the front lines and updates on two of the NFL's most compelling stories this summer:
GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- "I keep having flashbacks to the Pittsburgh game,'' Palmer told me on Friday night under the stands at Georgetown College after his first scrimmage since his knee injury.
I thought it was a remarkable display of candor, but I would expect nothing less from Palmer. The guy can't lie. And Kimo von Oelhoffen's hit in the wild-card game seven months ago is in his head. The reason it came up is this: Coach Marvin Lewis has been saying since February that Palmer would return from reconstructive knee surgery in time for Cincinnati's season opener on Sept. 10. After Palmer looked OK moving around the pocket and a little shaky throwing the ball (4 of 9, 57 yards, one touchdown) against the Bengals' defense, I asked him if he agreed with Lewis.
And he paused. It was a two- or three-second pause. Usually when you ask a rehabbing player if he'll be ready to return by the goal he or his coach set, he'll punch the tape-recorded cliché in his head and say, whether he believes it or not, that he'll definitely be back whenever he's supposed to be.
Palmer paused, which seemed a sign that he wasn't sure himself.
"I believe it,'' he said. "But I'm realistic. I guess I don't know what to believe right now, really. I've never been through anything like this before. I felt I could play tonight if I had to, and the first game is, whatever, 36 days away. The question is, will I be ready to play how I need to play and move around how I need to move around when that day comes?''
I told him he looked good making cuts in the scrimmage, better than I thought he'd look. "I'm very confident in running, cutting and moving in the pocket,'' he said. "The knee is passing every test. When the [Bengals'] doctor checked out my knee after I played [on Friday night], he did the same thing he's done every time he's looked at it -- pulled it to the left, pulled it to the right and said, 'Everything's going good.'"
Clearly, what Palmer needs to be is more comfortable that he'll be able to protect himself on Sept. 10 in Kansas City when the Chiefs' two speed rushers -- defensive end Jared Allen and linebacker Derrick Johnson -- come sprinting at him. There was one play on Friday night where Palmer looked uncomfortable. He scanned the defense from the pocket as traffic closed in around him, then hurriedly threw to the left sideline to Chris Henry. The ball bounced in front of Henry. That's not Palmer. That's the rust and the flashback to the rolling hit from von Oelhoffen.
The other thing I didn't like about his evening, and I'm sure he didn't either: Palmer was 0 for 4 against the first-team defense and 4 for 5 against the second-teamers. On his first four incompletions he was uncharacteristically high on two throws. That's not Palmer. Not at all.
Let's see how he progresses over the next five weeks. No one knows how he'll feel by Labor Day and how he'll look in and out of the pocket. He's got time to get that comfortable game feel back. If it's slow to return, maybe Lewis will rethink what he's doing. Maybe he says to Palmer: Let's let Anthony Wright play the first two games -- at Kansas City, home against Cleveland -- and you return against Pittsburgh in Week 3.
One thing I'd be encouraged about is what a pest Palmer has been with Lewis. "Every night he whispers in my ear, 'I need more reps,''' Lewis said. "He's amazing. He wants to be out there all the time.''
"Yeah,'' Palmer said. "I've told him I need more reps to get ready. I tell him, I leave him voice mails, I leave him text messages. Right before camp I got a text from him that said something like, 'Do you want reps with the first, second or third team?' I sent him one back that said, 'I'm ready to rock and roll. Don't even think about giving away any of my reps.'''
Lewis has given him 35 percent of the reps with the first team.
"Not enough,'' Palmer complained.
But that's what it's going to be. We'll see if it's enough when Lewis has to name a starter for the Kansas City game.
One other thing about Bengaldom: The crowds here have been amazing. On Friday night, for the Bengals' first and only live scrimmage of the preseason at camp, more fans (9,400) came to see the Bengals than had ever attended a training-camp scrimmage. Ever. I was in a line of cars at 5:30 p.m., a mile from Georgetown, that looked like the snaking line at the end of Field of Dreams. If you build a division winner, they will come. Talking to Bengals owner Mike Brown before the scrimmage, it was clear he felt none of this would have been possible without the early greatness and football charisma of Palmer, who is utterly without guile. How about this for a football superstar: Palmer calls himself naive. I can't root in the job I'm in, but let's just say Palmer's return to the Cincinnati lineup can't come soon enough.
HOUSTON -- This is why Gary Kubiak is the best thing that ever happened to David Carr:
The other day, Carr threw a pass into a coverage scheme that he and Kubiak knew right away was the wrong pass at the wrong time. Terrible decision. Instead of soft-pedaling his criticism, which is the way Carr has been treated for four years as the Disappointing Golden Boy of Houston football, Kubiak offered this gem: "You've been in the league four years and you make that throw? There is no way you can make a throw into coverage like that!''
You've got to love a coach who does not come in and kiss the franchise quarterback's heinie, because smooching is not what Carr needs.
"David can't assume, 'I'm OK, we've just got to fix the stuff around me,''' Kubiak told me after a Texans practice, sounding Parcellsian. "He's not OK. He's a long way from being OK.''
In pro football -- and probably in all of sports -- some guys need to have buttons pushed and some guys need to be treated with kid gloves. Most not only should have buttons pushed; most need buttons pushed. Carr is definitely one who wants and needs to be coached. He is no prima donna and he wants to be around people who will make him better. To him, those aren't just words. And with Kubiak and offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun micromanaging his every move, there's no doubt in my mind Carr's going to be a better player this year. Will he be a franchise quarterback? I don't know. No one does. I have my doubts. He's got to do it under pressure. He's going to have a chance, even though I think the Texans should have taken Reggie Bush instead of Mario Williams with the first pick in the draft because Carr desperately needs another offensive weapon.
Last Thursday, the day I watched Carr run Houston's talent-shy first-team offense, Kubiak was standing downfield, watching Carr's mechanics closely. Every so often he'd see something, amble up and say something to Carr, then go back and resume watching him from afar.
It's so fascinating why Kubiak was doing this.
Last winter, when Kubiak sat down to study every game Carr played last year, he noticed something fatal to quarterbacking success: When Carr faded back to throw, he consistently looked to the side of the field that was his first option. Imagine how crucial this is. If you're a safety and you've scouted Carr from the end-zone coaches' tape that every team sees, and you've seen that you can figure out the side of the field he's trying to throw to the second he begins his pass drop, wouldn't that be a huge advantage? When Kubiak first sat down with Carr to watch tape, he said, in so many words: Are you kidding me? You're an NFL quarterback, and you telegraph your throws so blatantly? So on this day, in this practice, Kubiak watched Carr take his drop and watched his eyes as much as his arm. He watched to make sure Carr was surveying the entire field on his drop, not just half of it.
Kubiak, 44, was a quarterback at Texas A&M years ago and has a lot of tough Texan in him. He was in Mike Shanahan's shadow forever -- for a year in San Francisco and 10 years in Denver -- so no one knows much about him. Complex he's not. Thorough he is. Very thorough. He's got a winning personality, but it can bite. He's not afraid of anyone and he doesn't let the little things slide. When he took this job, he told Carr, "Don't take it personal, but I can get real mad at quarterbacks.''
He didn't get mad the other day, but he got his point across. Carr was making progress in not boring a hole through his receivers when he dropped back from center. Kubiak worked with Carr during the offseason on slowing his frenetic pass drop and making him survey the field when he stepped back from center. Don't be in such a rush, Kubiak told him. See the entire field.
"Today I wanted to watch his eyes when he dropped back, because that's what he's struggled with,'' Kubiak said. "He's got [offensive coordinator ] Troy [Calhoun] with him at the line of scrimmage, then me downfield. David is really getting coached on every play.''
Ask those close to Carr, and they'll tell you he likes how he's being coached, particularly the maddening attention to detail. Ask Carr, and he sounds like a guy who really thinks he has a chance now, even though Bush isn't here to salvage a very troubled offensive backfield.
"I guess a coach can have two different philosophies,'' Carr said. He's now had two coaches in the NFL -- Dom Capers and Kubiak. "Dom's philosophy was, You're the quarterback -- you're the guy -- and we're going to surround you with everything we can to help you win. But he was a defensive coach, so he really couldn't give me any coaching points. That was left to the offensive assistants. Gary's philosophy is very hands-on with his quarterback. He demands perfection. His confidence in me has never wavered, but he also isn't afraid to call me out, which I think is good for me. It makes me feel more like I'm one of the guys.''
The other thing about Kubiak's impact on Carr is that he has told Carr he'll have competition for his job. Those are hollow words, you say, when the competition is Sage Rosenfels. But hold on. Rosenfels is a smart guy with a better arm than you think. Phil Simms calls him "the most underrated guy in free agency this year.'' Watching him inside the Texans' bubble the other day, Rosenfels threw hard and accurately. He should give the Texans a backup they'll be more comfortable throwing in there than Tony Banks or Dave Ragone. Clearly, though, if Carr goes down for any length of time, the Houston offense will likely go down with him. "A quarterback who can push David will help him,'' Kubiak said.
I still think Bush could have helped more. And now the Texans don't know if running back Domanick Davis' surgically repaired knee will be well enough for him to compete for his old starting job. Davis said the knee still hurts, and he has gotten a second opinion on why he doesn't feel right. There's no structural damage, but the Texans have kept him off the field for the most part in camp. Without Davis, Kubiak will turn to a mishmash of recycled and unproven and rookie backs, including Antowain Smith, Vernand Morency and surprising sixth-round pick Wali Lundy, who scored 52 career touchdowns at Virginia.
"Any regrets,'' I asked Kubiak, knowing full well the answer I'd get, "about passing on Bush, seeing all the problems you're having in the offensive backfield?''
"No,'' he said. "We did the right thing for our football team. We're not one player away, and we needed to start building a foundation on defense.''
Fair enough. We'll see if the Texans were right. I do agree that Bush would have gotten chewed up a good deal by defenses focusing on him because of the lack of other respected offensive weapons. But now Carr can do something about that himself. Let's see if he can.
"I guarantee Gary will have David go into the game on Sunday more confident about the game than he's ever been in his life,'' new Texans GM Rick Smith told me. "They'll massage the offensive game plan during the week and he'll feel great about what they're going to be doing by Sunday.''
