Miami Herald's Armando Salguero sure has a high opinion of Carson Palmer:
So general manager Jeff Ireland and coach Tony Sparano, scouts and anyone else with a voice within the organization, must know which veterans could be available when the lockout ends. And Palmer is atop that list of possibilities for Miami.
The others on the list of possible available QBs – Kevin Kolb, Vince Young, Donovan McNabb, Kyle Orton, Alex Smith – also have to be considered. But none of them rate higher than Palmer. All the others have been identified by the Dolphins as a group of has-beens, or a could-bes, or a never-weres.
That long list of names is short on certainty.
Palmer is different.
He’s unquestionably better than Chad Henne. He’s not Tom Brady, but he’s head-and-shoulders above the other quarterbacks who might become available. He’s not a Pro Bowl player but he would be the second-best quarterback in the AFC East. He’s not Peyton Manning, but if he’s put in the right situation, he could help make a mediocre team a playoff contender.
Personally, I'd already put Mark Sanchez ahead of Palmer, and to say that Palmer is "head and shoulders" above the other QB's listed above is a little silly.
None of this is my opinion. It’s the opinion of folks within the Miami organization who have done the work. This comes from folks who have watched the films or crunched the numbers or done the evaluations or talked to the men who did.