All week, the talk was Carson Palmer, Carson Palmer, Carson Palmer. Then comes the Friday curveball: Palmer should be OK to play Sunday, but Smokey Brown isn't OK. Brown has the sickle-cell trait that is causing leg pain, coach Bruce Arians said. I'm not a doctor and there is precious little information (Brown was not in the locker room to answer questions Friday), but it doesn't sound great. But it does sound like it can be helped now that the Cardinals and Brown know about it -- plenty of NFL players have the trait. One, former Cardinals cornerback Jerraud Powers, tweeted he has it (and that he recently talked about it for an article.)

No, I don't know what this means long-term or even short-term for Brown, although Arians wouldn't rule him out for Sunday's game. Still, it's a jarring finish to a week that I'm sure the Cardinals would have liked to be a lot more stable heading into such a game with the Seahawks.

-- At least Palmer is playing. Is he 100 percent? Clearly not. But there never seemed to be any doubt about his availability. One way to read the tea leaves when it comes to the starting QB -- given that Drew Stanton is the only other QB on the roster, as long as they don't activate Zac Dysert from the practice squad, you have to feel that they are confident in Palmer. Otherwise, they'd want Dysert available just in case.

-- Michael Floyd had fallen behind Brown on the depth chart. Now, it looks like Brown might not play. And Floyd frequently does well against the Seahawks. This is his time. Will he take it?

-- With Palmer dealing with his hamstring and Brown hurting, it would seem to point even stronger in the direction of heavy David Johnson Sunday. Easier said than done against a very good Seattle run defense. If you look back to the lousy games the Cards have played against the Seahawks, the terrible imbalance in rushing yards (547 for Seattle, only 86 for the Cardinals) is a big reason why. Johnson himself was held to 23 yards on 11 carries last year.

-- The Cardinals (who, yes, have trailed big most of the time in those games, costing them chances to run) haven't rushed for more than 30 yards in any of those three games. In contrast, Andre Ellington's game-clinching touchdown scamper in Seattle last season covered 48 yards.

-- Tracking down Russell Wilson will be a key, as usual. Wilson isn't running nearly as much (only 35 yards rushing thus far, after hurting his knee early in the season) but it'd be naïve to think losing track of him won't kill the Cardinals' defense. The Cardinals have done a great job with their four-man rush. Maybe that will help allow the Cardinals to use a robber/spy in the middle of the field to watch Wilson.

-- You know the Cardinals are looking closely at the Seattle offensive line, and in particular, left tackle Bradley Sowell -- the former backup here. "Bradley looks like he's the same guy that he was here," Arians said. "Tough, plays hard. Has had some problems, but he'll play extremely hard against us."

-- Curious to see if the Cardinals feel there is a place to use the seven defensive backs-approach at all. The first time they used it against the Jets, it was three guys up front, money linebacker Deone Bucannon (who some might still see as a safety and therefore an eighth DB) and then a bunch of defensive backs.

It not only worked ex-Seahawk Tharold Simon into the mix but Justin Bethel saw his first defensive action of the season. If not for his foot problems, Bethel would've gotten a shot at that No. 2 CB job that has become Marcus Cooper's.

"I like the fact that they came up with a package to start giving me something on defense," Bethel said, who admitted it might not mean a lot more work. "We brought in a lot of good guys. Coop's been playing great. Tharold has been playing great in 'penny' situations. As long as they're playing the way they are, there's no point in taking them out. I think they'll find ways to get me out there, and I'll do whatever I can do to help us get these wins."

-- A reminder that the parking lots will open at 1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

-- Another reminder: One week from today the NFL Network will premiere its "A Football Life" episode about Pat Tillman.

-- One more thing to reflect upon with the Seahawks coming to town: Last year, the Cardinals actually were only down 10-6 in the second quarter (they missed an extra point) before it got sideways. In 2014, the incredibly short-handed Cards were leading 3-0 midway through the second quarter. It's not just about matching the Seahawks' intensity to start but matching it through the whole game. We'll see if the Cardinals can make that happen.

See you Sunday.