Traditional logic would dictate that the Oakland Raiders' new quarterback, Carson Palmer, will take a week or two to learn the Raiders' playbook and become comfortable with the offense enough to get a start. That would mean that Kyle Boller would start this weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs and Palmer would get his first start after the Raiders' bye week, at home against the Denver Broncos.
However, as this season has shown, Raiders coach Hue Jackson is anything but predictable.
This is the same guy who ran a fake punt and a fake field goal two weeks in a row. The same guy that traded for outside linebacker Aaron Curry, then gave him the start after only one day of practice with the team. The same guy who went for it on fourth down late in the game against the Cleveland Browns when the chip shot field goal would have given them a three score lead and all but assured a win. With Hue Jackson, you can throw traditional logic out the window like caution to the wind.
I highly doubt that Jackson would start Carson Palmer on Sunday unless he was sure that Palmer was ready to start. By all reports, Palmer is in good physical condition and has spent his time off practicing in Los Angeles with TJ Houshmandzadeh. Therefore, Palmer is probably ready to go physically. All that leaves is how long it will take Palmer to get comfortable with the terminology and playbook in Oakland.
Given the fact that Hue Jackson has worked with Palmer both at USC and when they were both with the Cincinnati Bengals, I would not put it past Jackson to have more faith in Palmer than most would. If Jackson likes what he sees out of Palmer this week, I could very well see Jackson using a dumbed down version of the passing game against the Chiefs so that Palmer could get his feet wet in Oakland sooner rather than later.
Needless to say, regardless of what I or anyone else thinks, it is near impossible to guess what Hue Jackson is going to do next.