So if your quarterback turns the ball over six times to help you lose your biggest game of the season — the divisional round of the NFC playoffs — how would you reward him? With a five-year contract extension of course! Carolina’s choice to hand Jake Delhomme $20 million guaranteed this offseason was some of the worst money spent this side of Darrius Heyward-Bey’s contract. Now I’m not going to say I thought Delhomme was completely done after that game — he did lead them to a 12-4 season and he had a history of performing pretty well in the league — but there’s no way I would have rewarded him monetarily after that garbage game. What’s worse is that Carolina’s financial commitment exacerbated the problem because they didn’t pursueany good alternatives at quarterback, making the season a waste.
Jake Delhomme threw three interceptions against the Bills adding to his comedic total of 13 through six games, not to mention two lost fumbles. Delhomme is quite simply having a nightmare season and it’s not going away. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy wound up setting records with his horrible year if Carolina doesn’t make a change soon. It’s unfortunate because this team was 12-4 last year and they have a lot of talent on the offense; you could put a number of other quarterbacks under center for this team and see tremendous results. There are only so many breakdowns between him and the receivers, and only so many tipped balls that you can make an excuse for. As if it weren’t already abundantly clear it is now: Jake Delhomme is singularly the problem in Carolina and he is no longer an NFL quarterback. They need a change desperately. As they say in AA, Carolina, the first step is to admit you have a problem.
