Palmer strained his right elbow in a loss to the Giants on Sept. 21, when his arm was hit while he threw a pass. He sat out a 20-12 loss to Cleveland the following week, when backup Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three interceptions and fumbled.

He didn't participate in passing drills the first two days of practice last week, giving the elbow time to heal. He threw on Friday and played in a 33-21 loss at Dallas that left the Bengals (0-5) at the bottom of the NFL. Palmer said his elbow came through that game without problem.

"Probably go with the same approach as last week and hopefully be ready to play," Palmer said Wednesday. "Throw as little as possible and let it rest as much as possible, and make a decision later in the week and see what the doctors say."

He didn't fully participate in practice Wednesday. Left tackle Levi Jones missed practice entirely with a bad back.

Palmer went 23-of-39 for 217 yards and a pair of touchdowns with one deflected interception against the Cowboys. Several of his passes were uncharacteristically off the mark. Palmer said the elbow injury didn't affect his throwing, but made him more cautious about what he tried to do.

"There were a couple times where I didn't have the confidence I normally have, just because my arm's not the same as previous to the injury," he said. "As far as throwing balls, I felt like I missed a couple of throws I shouldn't have missed. But the only thing I noticed was just a little less confidence in throwing some. I saw holes (in the coverage) in certain spots that I kind of held back on and moved on to the next guy."

After Palmer acknowledged holding back on some throws Wednesday, his receivers said they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in Dallas.

"It's something that's not noticeable, not the way he was throwing Sunday," Chad Ocho Cinco said. "He looked fine to me."

Receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh had seven catches for 85 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Cowboys.

"For the most part, I thought he was fine," Houshmandzadeh said. "There might have been certain cases where he probably realized he didn't put as much zip on it. You could probably tell at times, but for the most part, the ball was accurate and all you had to do was catch it."