The God's Honest Truth About Jake

[neverlosethefeeling]

He is not Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or any other Hall of Fame quarterback.

But the Panthers do not ask him to be. They don't ask him to carry the offense on his shoulders, but everyone who has ever seen him play knows he's a competitor, and he gives us a shot to win almost every game he starts in. With a couple obvious exceptions. For a John Fox offense to work, we need a capable backfield, an established running game, and a receiver we can count on. We have all those things.

Most importantly, Jake leads this team. I will recall the Chicago game from last year, when every single defensive player on that field told you after the game that he fired them up. They wanted to protect their guy. Not Chris Harris, Beason, Davis or Peppers. JAKE!

His teammates are obviously willing to go to war for him, and you know that he'll do the same until the cows come home.

Once again, he's not a Drew Brees 6TD game kinda guy, he's not going to break the passing touchdowns single-season record, and he will never be considered for the Hall of Fame.

But most importantly, when he's being Jake, he gives us a chance to win, and he leads the team like no other player on the roster can.

He's not asked to throw 30+ passes a game, and the Panthers have a losing record when he does. Typically that's because we've had to come out of our offensive shell, and we've most certainly gotten away from running the ball because it wasn't working, or we're in such a hole we have no choice but to throw the ball every down.

I do not understand, how even after today, some think that he's not the best quarterback we have on the roster. The Eagles cut Feely to keep Kolb, who'd never started a game in the NFL. Feely is not the answer to our prayers.

Jake is not a God-send, but he's not the root of all our probelms, either. He's not even the cause of MOST of our problems.

I can think of 2/3 of the Panthers (Defense and ST) that were worse today than the offensive unit.

[FLpanfan]

w00t

[Ashor]

The sky is falling down on our franchise.

[1789Cardiac Cats9020]

yeah...that's not saying alot

[George Shinnsplints]

Week 1 was a Jake Stinker (there are 4-5 of those every year), NFC Playoff game was a Jake Stinker. I think we just got all worked up because there were two Jake Stinkers in a row, usually Jake Stinkers are nonconsecutive. JD looked serviceable today.

[neverlosethefeeling]

And that's all we need him to be! We do not need Tom Brady at the helm of this offense! He'd be just as under-utilized as some think Peppers was in a Turgovac defense!

[frash.exe]

He's an average (at best) QB, at this point in his career, and in today's NFL you cannot be consistent and make deep postseason runs with average QBs.

[ckroush]

He is not Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or any other Hall of Fame quarterback.

But the Panthers do not ask him to be. They don't ask him to carry the offense on his shoulders...

They don't have to ask. He's a QB. All QBs are responsible for their offense. It comes with the position.

... but everyone who has ever seen him play knows he's a competitor, and he gives us a shot to win almost every game he starts in...he gives us a chance to win...

I want to WIN! I don't just want a "chance." And I know of two games in which I can clearly argue that statement.

Jake leads this team. I will recall the Chicago game from last year, when every single defensive player on that field told you after the game that he fired them up. They wanted to protect their guy. Not Chris Harris, Beason, Davis or Peppers. JAKE!

That was last season. A lot has happened. Many players have lost confidence in him.

Once again, he's not a Drew Brees 6TD game kinda guy, he's not going to break the passing touchdowns single-season record, and he will never be considered for the Hall of Fame.

And we're crazy for wanting that? Why should we accept mediocrity?

Jake is not a God-send, but he's not the root of all our probelms, either. He's not even the cause of MOST of our problems.

We can mostly agree on this. We have a lot of problems, but as the field general, I expect more out of him. He is supposed to be a team leader and like I said earlier, he is responsible for that offense. You can have one bad receiver, or one bad lineman. You CANNOT have a QB that makes a lot of mistakes and expect to win games.

[Saint J]

With the way football is becoming more pass oriented at every level, it will become extremely rare to see teams win consistently with average QBs.

[ckroush]

He's an average (at best) QB, at this point in his career, and in today's NFL you cannot be consistent and make deep postseason runs with average QBs.

A+++

[frash.exe]

With the way football is becoming more pass oriented at every level, it will become extremely rare to see teams win consistently with average QBs.

i don't normally feature favoring one phase of the game over another.

I don't think we should just focus all our attention on QB, or the running game, or the Defense.

in today's league all 3 of them need to be up to snuff and fortified.

Fox doesn't understand that because he thinks this is the same league his idol Chuck Noll coached in and doesn't understand his archaic simple philosophies won't give him the edge over Team B.

[1789Cardiac Cats9020]

I think Tony Romo and Jay Cutler are striking evidence that in today's league, you're as good as your last game

[RockECU]

How many serviceable QBs have won super bowls? 1? 2? 3? I can think of Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson. Who else?

[George Shinnsplints]

He's an average (at best) QB, at this point in his career, and in today's NFL you cannot be consistent and make deep postseason runs with average QBs.

Agree about the consistency issue, but lots of exceptions to the making deep posteason runs with average QBs. Super Bowl-appearing teams in last 7 seasons:

2008 Arizona Cardinals (Debatable -- Kurt Warner)

2006 Chicago Bears (Rex Grossman)

2005 Seattle Seahawks (Matt Hasselback)

2003 Carolina Panthers (Delhomme, obv)

2002 Oakland Raiders (Rich Gannon)

2002 Tampa Bay Bucs (Brad Johnson)

That's like 42% of Conference Champs since '02.

(Some of these guys may be marginally better than Delhomme, but there's a lot of averageness in the lot. Warner obviously overachieved last year but he's nothing special at this point in his career).