Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer took a while this offseason to announce whether he would return or not to play in 2017. His message was clear. He needed to see how his body recovered.

He reiterated that on Tuesday after the team’s first practice of OTAs.

He told reporters he was “mentally never close” to retiring.

“You just have to give your body a chance to tell you,” he said “It takes a while to get back to 100 percent.”

It was always about his body and never about his desire to play.

“I just wanted to make sure I could get back to that point,” he said, noting how he has been told there will be a time when his body will tell him no.

That didn’t happen this offseason and he was glad.

“Once I realized I wasn’t in that situation, I started getting excited again that I was going to get another shot.”

He is taking a different approach to this offseason, throwing much less, in hopes his body will not go through as much wear and tear.

Will it make a difference in the season, and will that change how his body responds next offseason? It doesn’t sound like he wants to give it up. When he retires, it appears it won’t be a case of his being ready to be done. It will be when he simply can’t do it.