Dear Faithful Readers of There’s Always Next Year,
I regret to inform you that I will be taking a leave of absence from the blog in order to pursue a life long dream of playing quarterback for the Carolina Panthers. After reading this story yesterday about how well the franchise takes care of its under-performing, marginally skilled quarterbacks, I figure that I cannot possibly do worse in the NFL than throwing 5 interceptions and losing a fumble in my team’s blowout playoff loss to the Cardinals. I have a strong suspicion that my mediocre skill set will be right at home in their backfield and I hope you all will wish me luck. Thanks for reading.
Marion
P.S. Please post any thoughts on how I should spend my $20 million signing bonus in the comments. You might just be able to cut yourself in on my new found stardom.
The Panthers are 54-33 in the regular season and playoffs in the past six seasons when Delhomme starts, 6-10 when he doesn’t. Delhomme took a pay cut from the organization, so they can clear up some much needed cap space.
Besides, you thought T.O. being cut by Dallas as a good move. At least Delhomme got us to the playoffs. As a Cowboys fan, I’m assuming you know that Romo threw the same exact number of interceptions (5, plus a fumble or two), but he did it in a crucial game to get the Cowboys to the playoffs, while Delhomme got us to the playoffs and then we lost to a Super Bowl team that was unbelievably hot at the time. At least Delhomme got us to the playoffs AND at least scored one touch down, while Nick Folk did all the work for the Cowboys.
Honestly why is this the decision to give Delhomme a paycut a worse decision than shipping off a star player and one of the best wideouts to play the game (and possibly one of the only players on the Cowboys who seemed actually upset about their disappointing season) while leaving Romo untouched?
20 million guaranteed. after announcing as loudly as possible to the entire universe that he can no longer be a good nfl quarterback.
1. Clearing cap space and him taking a pay cut are 2 different things. The $20 million he received yesterday represents a raise in every part of the world other than the peculiarities of the NFL’s salary cap system.
2. How is my opinion of cutting T.O. an aging player inconsistent with this current opinion that the Panther’s should part ways with Delhomme sooner than later and not give a 34 year old a 5 year extension.
3. Yes, I realize that the Cowboys had a poor year last year. Does this mean that my opinions on other teams are no longer valid because the Cowboys underachieved.
4. Tony Romo is 5 years younger than Jake Delhomme with more Pro Bowl appearances and just as many Super Bowl rings, I’ll take my chances of winning a Super Bowl in the next 5 years over yours.
Have a great day!
@James: Yeah, I don’t know if getting to the playoffs last season was Delhomme’s doing. My sense is that teams are better analyzed from an organic-sum-of-the-parts sorta perspective. Just because a team gets to the playoffs doesn’t mean that every player on it is suddenly vindicated. Nor do I see the record as particularly telling — no one is saying Delhomme was consistently a bad choice for the Panthers, only that there might be better (younger) options to throw to the likes of Steve Smith.
I think this 5-year is really more about salary restructuring and letting Delhomme become motivated and play well next season, while the Panthers figure out their next QB move rather than arrive late in an already crowded fray of teams who are looking at Mark Sanchez.
Well for one your point wasn’t about age. Times you mentioned age in your post: zero. You can go back and try to make up a point to link your inconsistent views but its definitely not consistent at all. Your original point was that Delhomme threw so many interceptions and was rewarded, I am saying that maybe you should apply the same logic to Romo who threw the SAME number of interceptions as he continued his life long legacy of messing up when its all on the line.
I will avoid getting into the fact that Jake Delhomme took us to the Super Bowl while Tony Romo got to watch every Super Bowl from home, like everybody else. And that if the Panthers D could have figured out how to stop the Patriots amazing passing game, we would have won, because Delhomme played lights out in that game, including setting the record for the longest offensive play from scrimmage in a Super Bowl. I will try to accept your logic that a less experienced QB who always falters in the playoffs and has never gotten his very talented team to the Super Bowl has a better chance in ’09 than a veteran QB with great playoff performances (with exceptions like the Cardinals game) and an excellent SB appearance. And finally, let’s forget the fact that Panthers didn’t just go to the playoffs, they clinched the NFC South, one of the hardest divisions, with Delhomme while Romo got to spend time in Los Cabos during the playoffs again. AND lets make sure to ignore that you lost T.O. while we still have Steve Smith. Sure, the Cowboys have a better chance because I guess they have historically been to more Super Bowls!
Instead, I’ll just say that I’m glad that you guys aren’t actually running the organization. I hope you guys understand that both the Panthers and Jake Delhomme signed this contract knowing that it wasn’t actually a 5 year deal. The stretched it out that long to lower his cap number, but there is no way he sees the end of this contract and he knows it. They had to give him 20 mil of guarantees to make signing it worth it to Delhomme. It was just a creative way of lowering their cap number.
As a Carolina fan I definitely didn’t like the Delhomme meltdown, but Top tier quaterbacks don’t grow on trees. It’s just simply not that easy to go out and grab a starting quarterback. If it were that easy, there wouldn’t be so many teams with QB issues right now. That’s why I’m not ACTUALLY advocating getting rid of Tony Romo.
Your points are well taken, and while I do not agree with all of them, I appreciate some honest discussion on the blog.
I was concerned however why you would begrudge me bringing up parallels between my posts since that is what you did by referencing my T.O. write-up?
Other than that, I like the passion, and I hope you’ll keep reading.