To the Cardinals? After what I have seen from Stanton the last 3 games? At least 4 points... maybe even 6. Whereas in the beginning of the year Stanton looked like starter QB material, he has proven he'd be best suited as a lifelong backup on a good team.
To put it in perspective, if Carson was playing right now, there is no way in hell the Cards would be a -6 point underdog.. or even a -2 point under dog. (This game would probably be a pick 'em because the Cardinals defense would currently look even better since the D would be playing less and the offense would be scoring 7 to 10 more points per outing.) The thing that Carson did a lot better than Stanton was continue drives (read: make 3rd down plays) so the defense doesn't have to stay on the field as much. On the other hand, Stanton has regressed quite a bit since the beginning of the season and is a drive killer in most instances.
While Palmer is really good under a blitz, Stanton cannot handle a blitz. He looked like Derek Anderson and a bunch of other AZ QB castoffs who couldn't make an accurate pass under pressure to save their life.
That said, the loss of Fitz this year is overrated (regardless of what the Stanton/Palmer stats show this year when he plays). This is because even though he was playing a good chunk of last year, he was injured for most of the year in his lower body (and it showed in his play)... but the Cards were doing just fine because Palmer was passing the ball accurately to everyone else. However, this year, the only reason it seemed like wheels fell of the wagon when Fitz went out for a few weeks is because Stanton was so inaccurate that that the WRs really had to make difficult catches in order to continue plays (which obviously didn't happen against ATL and SEA).
At the same time, a disturbing trend for the Cardinals have emerged: They are making a lot of mistakes on the road that do not show up as much at home: dropped balls, false starts, illegal formations, fumbles, bad passes that should've been thrown better, etc. I thought this was just something that'd go away after the win at NYG earlier in the year, but that is not the case.
Stanton is making a lot of defenses look good only because his accuracy concerns are now legitimate flaws. There are at least 3 throws each game he has played in that if he had made his passes to open WRs even with just "average" accuracy, the chains would've moved, which would extend the Cardinals offense at least a minimum of 6 plays.
I don't know why some people are so down on Palmer.. He has played a very *very* high level this year. He makes a lot of throws I took for granted....