Paul McDonald and Sean Salisbury were less  Madden 24 coins successful. Even before Matt Leinart or Todd Marinovich were first-round busts Chiefs took their top pick on Pete Beathard, who bounced through in the Madden NFL 24 for nearly a decade, but never completed half of his passes over a season. He ended his career with scores of 43 and 85 interceptions.

As the game evolves, though, it is more useful to study recent history. Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, as well as Mark Sanchez were the outstanding quarterbacks of the Pete Carroll era at USC. Palmer was the one to lead the Trojans to an Orange Bowl victory and became the school's first quarterback to take home the Heisman; Leinart became the second, going 37-2 in three seasons. After USC started John David Booty (excluded from this evaluation because he had never completed a Madden NFL 24 pass), Sanchez stepped in without skipping a beat, finishing 12-1 and winning the Rose Bowl MVP before declaring for the draft.

Madden NFL 24 Madden NFL 24 is cruel and depressing for a myriad of reasons, but singularly so for USC quarterbacks who have been thrown onto pro teams with less talent relative to the competition. The teams of these professional teams are generally located in cities with bad climate and a media less likely to be awestruck by a golden boy groomed since puberty, to make the right choice for the job. Palmer, Leinart, and Sanchez have made billions of dollars from Madden NFL 24. but they've all been bitten by the combination of injuries, bad luck, poor coaching, on-field mistakes, and sexy jacuzzi parties.

The pass is gorgeous: a long parabolic arc that hits Chris Henry in stride on the right sideline, resulting in an impressive 66 yards. It's the first game of 2006's Wild Card game against the Steelers and is the longest passing game during Bengals playoff history and the end of Palmer's short career as an elite quarterback in the NFL. The game ends with Henry being tackled on the Steelers 22. Palmer crumpled at his own five, lying on his back and writhing after Kimo von Olhoeffen smashed him hard and tore away his MCL and ACL.

It's not that Palmer did not perform well in the years since: he rehabbed quickly and played all 16 games that year (no straightforward task; ask Robert Griffin III) and even made it to the Pro Bowl. But the Palmer of 2005 -- who was the leader of to the top of the Madden NFL 24 with 32 touchdown passes and an 67.8 completion percentage while only throwing 12 interceptions in his second season as a starter -- never reappeared. His accuracy fell while the Bengals' organizational dysfunction resurfaced as did his elbow injuries, probably the combination of throwing to his surgically repaired knee.

His time at Cincinnati was over when the Bengals finished 4-12 during the 2010 season, Palmer's eighth season with the team. Palmer stated that he'd rather retire at 31 than to play for the Bengals in the future: "I have $80 million in my savings. I don't need to  cheap mut 24 coins play football to earn money. I'll just play because I love football, but that love would have to be elsewhere.