After the 2008 season, Jake Delhomme got a huge 5 year-$42 million contract from the Carolina Panthers after a season in which he led the team to a 12-4 record, but effectively ended their season with a 5 interception game against the Arizona Cardinals. And he did not exactly light the world on fire in 2008. His worst game of the year was 17-6 loss to the Raiders in Week 10 where he went 7 for 27 (25%) with 72 passing yards, 1 Touchdown and 4 Interceptions. Andrew Walter outplayed him. He finished the season with an unimpressive 3,288 yards and a 15:12 Touchdown to interception ratio.
The last time he had a "good" season was in 2005 when he led the Panthers to the Conference championship and he again threw the season away with a 3 interception under 200 yard performance in a 34-14 loss. That season he had better stats than 2008 throwing for more than 3,400 yards and a 24:16 touchdown to interception ratio. But still not $42 million worthy, right?
One area that I can say that Delhomme has improved is with his fumbling ability. From 2003-2005 he fumbled a mind boggling 39 times. Since then, he has only put the ball on the turf 18 times. But that still isn't that great. But back to that contract.
The Panthers probably just thought it was a blip on the radar and Delhomme, from all accounts, is a really likable guy so they must have thought he was going to turn it around. Unfortunately he did not and missed the last 5 games of the 2009 season. This year, he is getting paid a little more than $12 million by the Panthers and they still cut him AND will still have to pay his salary. Then, the Browns trade away Brady Quinn, cut Derek Anderson and pay Delhomme $7 million to play quarterback for them next season. I'm not saying a man cannot earn money, but I am just completely puzzled as to why NFL executives think he is worth this much money.
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