WHAT DOES FOX DO NOW?
Well, here we are some two weeks after it was learned that Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme has a broken finger. He’s missed two game and Carolina is 1-1 in them. Backup signal caller Matt Moore has been decent, at best. He hasn’t been brilliant, but he hasn’t been awful, either. Now that Jake’s finger should be back to being relatively healed, what does head coach John Fox do for the remained of the season at quarterback?
The easiest thing for Fox to do is declare Jake’s finger still hurt, which allows him to continue to start Matt Moore, the favorite of the fans, and avoid any controversy. Doing this also allows Fox and Jake to save face because if Jake is deemed healthy but still sits on the bench, everyone will wonder why this move wasn’t done a long time ago when there was still hope at reaching the playoffs. It also lets Jake off the hook in terms of being benched. It will be a crushing blow to his already fragile ego if it is announced publicly that he’s been replaced by someone that started the season as a third-string quarterback.
It will also look exceedingly awful for general manager Marty Hurney if Jake is benched publicly because he and Fox are the ones that thought it was a wise decision to give Jake a big and expensive extension. And that means Hurney will now have a tough decision to make in the offseason should he be lucky enough not to be fired. All indications were that Moore was going to be let go after season’s end. Now, if Moore plays no worse than Jake and is several million dollars cheaper, how can Hurney justify letting him go?
But there’s also a chance that Fox could declare Jake the starter again, which would cause an uproar by fans. However, at this point, what does Fox have to lose? He’s going to be fired at the end of the season regardless, so he might as well go down with the one he hitched his wagon to with that big contract and the person he said gives Carolina the best chance of winning.
I will be surprised if he does that. Personally, I think Jake has taken his last snaps of the season. And declaring Jake to be still injured will be the smart and easiest thing to do for all parties involved.