"Quarterback guru Bob Johnson, who first saw Carson Palmer as a "big, tall, geeky seventh-grader," noticed a disturbing trend during Palmer's final games with the Cincinnati Bengals.

"He lost his velocity," Johnson recalled this week. "He was hurting. I'd see his deep balls dying. I'd never seen that before. It hurt me just to watch."

Losing his velocity? The thought would have been laughable to Johnson or anyone else who saw Palmer zipping the ball around Orange County in his younger days, back when the quarterback was bigger and stronger than most of his linemen.

The Raiders' new quarterback has no scrappy underdog story. This is not Kurt Warner bagging groceries at Hy-Vee and waiting for his chance. This is not Tom Brady waiting until the sixth round to hear his name on draft day.

Palmer was the "it" kid who went from high school sensation to Heisman Trophy winner to Pro Bowl selection.

"Playing quarterback," one former coach said, "was his destiny."

The Raiders are so confident in those innate gifts that they're considering wiping the cobwebs from his shoulder pads and dropping him smack into the starting lineup Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Never mind that Palmer just arrived this week, courtesy of a blockbuster trade with the Bengals.

"I know exactly what I'm getting," Raiders coach Hue Jackson said.

Jackson first saw the preternatural gifts as a USC assistant trying to recruit Palmer out of Santa Margarita Catholic High School. That's why he thinks Palmer, 31, can essentially roll off his couch and into the huddle."