Carolina Panthers Need To Realize Jake Delhomme Is Overrated

Dan ParzychSep 15, 2009

What's bugging me this week? How about Carolina Panthers QB Jake Delhomme.

The Carolina Panthers entered Week One of the 2009 regular season with high expectations, coming off of a season in which they clinched a NFC South title and an 8-0 regular season record at home.

Unfortunately, the Panthers lost to the Arizona Cardinals in the Divisional round of the playoffs 33-13. In arguably one of the worst games of his NFL career, Delhomme finished 17-of-34 for 205 yards and one touchdown. On top of that, he threw five interceptions and lost a fumble during a wet game in Carolina.

Despite his horrendous performance against the Cardinals in the playoffs, Delhomme was given a five-year extension in the offseason through 2014 that would pay him $42.5 million ($20 million guaranteed). With the start of a new football season past weekend, no player wanted to get off to a better start than Delhomme, to prove that last January's performance was only a fluke.

Unfortunately, Delhomme was just as abominable as he was in January.

In his first game of the 2009 regular season against the Philadelphia Eagles, Delhomme put on a performance that was too painful to even watch. He finished 7-of-17 for 73 yards, four interceptions, and one fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

His performance was so bad, he had to be replaced by backup QB Josh McCown in the second half.

The Panthers need to realize that Delhomme had two great seasons from 2003-04 in which he threw for over 7,000 yards and 53 touchdowns. Other than that, he has not lived up to the money the team thinks he is worth.

From the organization's point of view, Delhomme may be one of the most overrated players in the NFL. He may have started all 16 games last season en route to the team's No. 2 seeding in the playoffs. However, the main reason why the Panthers were able to finish 12-4 last season was because of a strong running game from RB's DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart (combined 2,351 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns).

Fans and analysts around the NFL continue to question whether Delhomme should continue to start since he has recorded 11 turnovers in the last two games.

Unfortunately, the Panthers still believe that Delhomme is their No. 1 guy and is worth every penny they are paying him. He will start again this week as the team heads to Atlanta to take on QB Matt Ryan and the rest of the Falcons.

It should be interesting to see if Delhomme can now bounce back from not one, but two horrendous games in a row where he constantly turned the ball over.