Carson Palmer “looks fantastic”

It was difficult to be optimistic about Carson Palmer after he suffered his second torn ACL last season at such a late stage of his career. Palmer himself admitted to being devastated by the injury, and after it took some time for him to start looking like himself after the first tear, it’s pretty easy to see why.

Palmer doesn’t have the luxury of taking a couple years to get back to playing good football. He has to understand that if he struggles upon return from this ACL tear, that his career is likely over. Nobody has the time for a 35 year old quarterback to get back to his old-self again.

However, while it seemed a little more than optimistic when Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians said he thought Palmer may be ready for some work during OTAs in the spring, it’s now being backed up by Cardinals general manager, Steve Keim who says Palmer, “looks fantastic.”

Arizona had the best record in football when Palmer went down, and it’s a team that’s loaded with talent, and is being coached about as well as any team in football. Palmer doesn’t have to be Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers for the Cardinals to be successful, he just has to get back to being Carson Palmer.

Victor Cruz ahead of schedule

There are few players returning from injury this season whose impact could be bigger than the return of Victor Cruz to the New York Giants. The good news for the Giants is, it looks like he’s healing up very nicely. Yesterday, Giants punter Steve Weatherford told NFL Network’s NFL AM crew that Cruz is about two months ahead of schedule.

While the Giants have plenty of issues to address this offseason, the return of Cruz has to have them feeling very optimistic about their offense heading into the offseason rebuilding process. While the Giants have to figure out whether to keep guys like Antrel Rolle and Jason Pierre-Paul in the mix, and have to figure out how to sure up their offensive line, the offense is set up for a huge year if Cruz can return to form.

Cruz was always a difficult cover, but never really proved he could be the number one receiver on a team. Now, he doesn’t have to. That role is clearly going to be filled by Odell Beckham Jr, and that will make Cruz even better. Some of Cruz’s best games came because teams were keying on former Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks. While Nicks had some nice seasons in New York, he wasn’t nearly the dynamic playmaker that Beckham was his rookie campaign.

Trying to find a way to cover Cruz and Beckham is going to keep defensive coordinators up at night. If the Giants can upgrade the offensive line, offensive coordinator Bob McAdoo is going to have a field day with the Giants offense.

 Chris Johnson and Brandon Bostick among early offseason moves

There wasn’t a single soul who saw Brandon Bostick let the onside kick at the NFC Championship game get away who thought Bostick would be back with the Green Bay Packers in 2015. Yesterday the Packers made it official, and cut ties with the young tight end who played a huge role in the Packers collapse when he attempted to field the onside kick, instead of just doing his job and blocking on the play.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Packers failing to close out that game in Seattle, but a player has to be pretty important a team’s success to overcome a blunder like that.

Meanwhile in New York, John Idzik’s 2014 offseason played a huge role in the former Jets’ general manager losing his job after just two seasons. Despite the fact that the Jets had decent room to maneuver under the cap, Idzik signed aging veterans like Michael Vick and Chris Johnson who were well past their prime, and left many scratching their heads at what seemed to be a complete lack of a plan.

This week when the Jets told Johnson he was being let go, the tailback expressed disappointment in the way the Jets sold him on playing in New York. Johnson spoke to Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show and said his time with the Jets wasn’t what he was led to believe it would be.

“Basically, it was a situation where I was going there to be the guy, or whatever,” Johnson told Eisen. “And it was still said both guys were gonna get playing time but, you know, I think it was after the second game or something like that, it just switched over and I was getting less and less playing time.”

While Idzik deserves every bit of blame he receives for the way the Jets season went last season, Johnson’s assumption that Idzik cost him playing time is likely off base. If Johnson were still the dynamic playmaker he was in Tennessee, the Jets would have given him the football. It’s not like they had any other explosive playmakers on the field.