nah Palmer didn't have a great season at all, not bad enough to be benched but not terrible. he was fluky and inaccurate at times while just made stupid mistakes at others. except for the falcons game I can't remember him doing anything productive.
first round next year... probably AP, Foster, Rice, Lynch, and Rodgers are the top 5. Brees will still be in the 1st round, Brady probably too, both in the 6-10 range. The rest of the top 12 would be Charles, Martin, Megatron, Marshall, and then probably McCoy or Morris.
I don't trust Belichick enough to draft a Patriot RB. I don't trust the Browns enough to draft a Browns anything.
Rivers was so bad this year it's kinda sad... if you do wait until late to pick up a QB, I'd suggest picking 2. The top guys drafted will probably be Rodgers/Brees/Brady/Peyton/Cam/RG3/Ryan, and that group doesn't even include Eli, Romo, Stafford, Wilson, Roethlisberger, or Kaep. This next season will be so deep that I'd probably wait until very late to draft a QB, then draft Wilson/Kaep and Rivers/Flacco (haha), or Roethlisberger and Freeman/Luck, or something. It's going to be bizzarre, there's really enough good quarterbacks now for all leagues to adopt 2 starting QBs.