Carson Palmer: Joe Burrow is better than Patrick Mahomes

Nothing spices up a cold news cycle like a hot take. And Carson Palmer has a scorcher.

Palmer, former quarterback of the Bengals, Raiders, and Cardinals, believes that the current Cincy starter is better than the NFL’s present standard bearer at the position, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

“I think Joe is the best quarterback in the league,” Carson Palmer recently said on The QB Room podcast, hosted by his brother, Jordan, via CincyJungle.com. “I know Patrick [Mahomes] is phenomenal, but I just think Joe’s more consistent. He’s more consistent. He’s more accountable to run the system and the play that’s called and not feel like, ‘Well, he didn’t win last time and get open for me, so I’m gonna do it with my feet,’ and then before you know it, you’re sacked for a four-yard loss because you tried to make two or three guys miss. Joe is just — talk about not having a weakness. Mentally strong, physically tough, accurate, can throw it far enough, fast enough, gets the ball out quick, and then he can actually do a lot with his legs.”

That remark assumes that Carson Palmer has an abundance of inside knowledge regarding the manner in which Mahomes runs an offense. Basically, Carson gives Burrow the edge because he doesn’t freelance as much as Mahomes. Without knowing the system intimately, it’s hard to know when a guy is doing something other than he’s been told to do.

And while the best quarterbacks in today’s NFL know how to turn chicken shit into chicken salad when the play that’s called doesn’t work, Carson Palmer is suggesting that Mahomes pivots away too quickly from the play that’s called, based on an assumption that, because a player struggled to get open on a prior play, he’ll struggle again on this play.

That’s a