At a press conference this morning introducing Carson Palmer to the Oakland area media, Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson made it clear that he was not alone in making the deal, but that the responsibility to win does fall on his shoulders. To that end, he was clear today that Carson Palmer represented his belief in that goal.
He said, "That’s my job as the head coach and leader of this team. What I set out to do was find the person I would be comfortable with coming in here, helping me lead this football team as we continue to move forward and give us the best opportunity to win. And I was very lucky to kind of reach back in my past and grab somebody I’m very familiar with being Carson. But in order to do that it took a lot of team work, it took a lot of cooperation from the Bengals."
Given the state of the roster, there’s no doubt that compared to Kyle Boller or Terrelle Pryor, Palmer is that guy at this point. Is he that much better than Jason Campbell? Only time will tell. However, Jackson seems to think so and he clearly has the follow-through that must have made Al Davis proud to hire him in the first place.