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OK, are you ready for one more opinion about embattled Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme?
I don't think he's finished yet.
In fact, I think Delhomme will play a good game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. I don't think he'll get yanked for Matt Moore or A.J. Feeley (who officially signed Tuesday).
I'm not saying the Panthers will win the game Sunday – Delhomme's not the only guy who can determine that – but I'm saying he's not going to lose it for them.
Now since Delhomme just had the two worst games of his life back-to-back, I understand why so many people think Delhomme's career has hurtled into an irreversible death spiral.
But Delhomme isn't done. His career has always been a jagged stock-market line on a graph: up, down, up, down.
There's Good Jake – you don't remember him, maybe, but he exists. There's Bad Jake. They inhabit the same body.
Good Jake went on vacation when the Panthers finished a 12-4 regular season in early January, and we haven't seen him since. He went backpacking in Europe or something.
But he will make himself known again. I've seen Delhomme throw enough passes over the past six months to believe that somewhere, deep inside that No.17 jersey, Good Jake is writing a postcard he wants to send us all.
Delhomme doesn't look to me like David Carr did when he lost it here in 2007. Carr got so jittery in the pocket you would have thought he was constantly drinking espresso on the sideline rather than Gatorade. He would dump the ball off to a running back if someone in the stands tripped on the stairs and made a loud noise.
Delhomme still has courage – he just isn't throwing the ball straight. That can be fixed.
The problem against Philadelphia was three-fold. Delhomme couldn't throw, his offensive linemen couldn't block and the coaching staff – which has known for years how often the Eagles blitz – couldn't coach. The staff somehow looked surprised when the Eagles kept rushing five or six men at Delhomme.
But the blame fell mostly on No.17 – partly because he deserves it and partly because he wants it to. Delhomme said after the game that part of the way to solve the Panthers' offensive problems were: “Talk to the media. Take all the bullets they are going to give you. Swallow the sword.”
In other words, shelter the others from as much blame as possible – a trait of a good leader.
Not that Delhomme should be immune to criticism. He was terrible.
Do you know Steve Smith had the ball thrown to him 13 times Sunday but only caught three of them? That's a major problem. If Delhomme can't find Smith consistently, it is over.
But in this Atlanta game, if I'm the Panthers, I still want Delhomme in there over Feeley (a career backup who doesn't know the playbook) and Moore (just too iffy).
Delhomme, of course, wants to play. “I'm not looking for the easy out, to play somebody else and I can sit on the sidelines and lick my wounds,” he said.
He will get his chance. Coach John Fox plans to start Delhomme again, albeit on a much shorter leash.
This time, the coaches need to help Delhomme more.
DeAngelo Williams needs at least 25 carries – the 14 he had against the Eagles were way too few. The Panthers also must run more “max protect” – when you keep seven men in to block rather than the usual five – to guard against the Falcons' inevitable copy-cat blitzes.
Give Delhomme, 34, a decent running game and some modest blocking, and you'll see there's a decent quarterback in there somewhere.
I don't know how many more games or seasons “Good Jake” has left in him, but he's not gone forever.
