The Carolina Panthers surprised the NFL world and in particular their fans by signing Jake Delhomme to a five year contract extension virtually guaranteeing that the Cajun will retire as a Carolina Panther. The Panthers did this in spite of the complete meltdown that Delhomme had in the championship game against the Cardinals last season. Was it the right decision for the Panthers?

As a Carolina Panthers fan since their inception, I have come to know the struggles of our franchise at the quarterback position. There has been the good, (Delhomme, Collins) the bad, (David Carr, Rodney Peete) and the Ugly. We have struggled on the whole at the position largely because of the team philosophy to put a premium on the running game. For that reason, the Panthers have usually only concerned themselves with having a player that would not lose the game for them. They did not have to be spectacular, but they did need to be able to complete off of play-action.

Though I am a huge Delhomme fan on the whole, I must wonder if he will be able to recover from the playoff game last year. It was not your average “bad day” after all. The guy single handedly gave the NFC championship to the Cardinals on a silver platter. It had to stick in his mind a little bit. Delhomme has faced adversity before as close as last year. He came off of Tommy John surgery to have one of his best years statistically since he took over for the Panthers several years ago.

Nobody can doubt Delhomme’s toughness, nor his dedication. His talent has always been attributed largely to having superstar Steve Smith running the sideline for his bombs. The numbers do bear that out, and Smith has bailed out Delhomme more times over the years than I could count. He certainly makes Delhomme look good, but I would dare say that Smitty would make any NFL quarterback look better than they are.

Add to that the fact that the Panthers have the best running back in the league according to many sources, and you have a lot of reasons for Delhomme to succeed. The Panthers lost to the Cardinals for one major reason last year and that was the fact that Delhomme repeatedly gave them the football. He knows it, the team knows it, and the fans know it. That will not happen again, if for not other reason that the fact that the Panthers are going to run the hell out of the ball. They will not put the rock up unless they absolutely have to with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart sitting in the backfield.

Signing Jake Delhomme was the right thing to do, both for Delhomme and the fans of Carolina. Delhomme gives the Panthers the best chance to win week in and week out, and that is all we can ask as fans of the franchise. Whether he can forget last year’s horrible ending or not might just make or break the Panthers in 2009 and beyond.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia user Matt Trostle