Carson Palmer was the 2003 overall #1 draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals AP Photo/David Kohl
The general rule for NFL draft picks is it takes a good five years, before we can accurately assess how their NFL careers have gone, and accurately rank their worthiness of the pick used to select them.
With that in mind we can take a look at the NFL draft class of 2003, who are now in their sixth NFL season. The first player selected in 2003 was QB Carson Palmer of USC by the Cincinnati Bengals.
While all 32 NFL teams would burn an overall number one pick on a potential franchise QB, the Bengals actually got this one pretty right. Since he was drafted Palmer has started most of games for the Bengals, despite missing much of the 2008 season with an injury.
The lesson here might be that Palmer did not play in his rookie campaign of 2003. He spent the entire year as the backup to QB Jon Kitna. Since taking over the starting job three games into the 2004 season, Palmer has put up some very nice numbers.
Palmer has a career passer rating of 88.5 and has passed for 16,062 yards in his 67 NFL starts. He has a 63% completion percentage, and led the Bengals to the 2005 playoffs. While his 110 touchdown to 71 interceptions is a little high, we must remember that the Bengals are a pretty bad football team.
With this pick the Bengals got a piece, for which they could have built around, and they tried to do so, they managed not to make the mistake of the Detroit Lions the year before with Oregon QB Joey Harrington.
While it is debatable how great a QB Palmer actually is, we can safely grade this draft pick as an A. Palmer came to the Bengals started in his second year, and that is all that can be expected from the number one overall pick.
Comments