Queen City Sports Blog

Let Matt Moore play! Come on, give him a chance!

I don’t even know why I’m bothering to write this post.  I know John Fox won’t make the change at QB.  In fact, he’s already hinted that he’s sticking with Jake Delhomme.  This is the same coach who sat DeAngelo Williams for two seasons in favor of DeShaun Foster.  This is the same coach who refused to part ways – he kept starting him! – with Stephen Davis even though Davis was completely broken and at the end of his career.  So, there is no reason to expect a change at QB, but one can always hope. 

They say that the separation between a college and a NFL QB is the ability to throw the deep out.  Did you see the deep out to Steve Smith that Delhomme had picked Sunday?  It was a lame wobbly duck that hung high in the air forever.  Another ball he had picked was a go route to Smith.  Smith had a step on the defender, but the ball hung in the air and allowed the defender to catch up and make the interception.  The secret is out too.  Defenses know that they just need to all-out blitz Delhomme and take away the middle of the field.  If they force him to throw a deep ball along the sidelines, chances are that Delhomme won’t execute the throw.  We could have run the wildcat every snap yesterday and come out with a better result than 38-10.

Jake is done, physically and mentally.  I don’t think the Tommy John’s surgery did the trick for Jake.  His arm looks dead.  It has no zip in it.  Furthermore, his head is a total mess and I don’t think he will be able to recover. 

I don’t claim that Matt Moore will be the savior, but it can’t get any worse.  Teams don’t want to play young QBs because they don’t want to “throw them to the wolves.”  The belief is that defenses will relentlessly attack young QBs and force them to make mistakes, which may shake the QB’s confidence.  A veteran, on the other hand, is supposed to be a game-manager and not mistake-prone.  Well, Jake Delhomme is playing like a rookie.  Heck, I’d even take the USC freshman QB over him at this stage.  If the veteran is going to give away games, we might as well let a young guy in and learn on the fly.  He’ll make some mistakes along the way, but the playing time will allow him to develop as a QB. 

With all that said, it’s not like Matt Moore is a rookie.  This is his third year with the team.  He wasn’t good, but he also wasn’t atrocious when he got some playing time two years ago.  The offense plays hard when he’s out of the field.  He throws a tight spiral on a rope.  There is no reason we can’t do with Moore what we did with Delhomme in 2003 and have a very conservative game plan.  Call simple plays for Moore, make sure he doesn’t lose the game for us, and put the game in hands of the defense.  The D surprisingly looked good today.  Plus, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that he won’t make nearly as many foolish mistakes as Delhomme.

There is always the possibility that Moore may be the next Tom Brady or Tony Romo.  Just like with DeAngelo Williams turning out to be a stud, we’ll never find out about Moore until he is given a chance to play.  It’s not likely he’ll be a Brady or Romo, but there is at least a chance of it happening.  Nothing is possible right now with Jake Delhomme.

The predicament faced by the Panthers shows the importance of the QB position.  Coming off a 12-4 year, the Panthers suddenly had to bench their starting QB in the first game of the season and have no proven players behind him.  That’s why I say that it’s worth overspending on the QB position.  It’s OK to take multiple stabs at finding a QB of the future.  I would rather over-attempt at finding a franchise QB than be weak at the QB position.  Instead, the Panthers have not addressed this position seriously in quite some time.  Their only attempts were to deal a meaningless pick for an aging veteran in Josh McCown and signing a young project in Matt Moore.  Thankfully, they have a first round pick next year to address the QB position.  Oh wait, they traded that for Everette Brown.