Thoughts on Jake Delhomme this season?

[Cyberjag]

In the past three games Jake has given the team about what you can reasonably expect of him. Actually he's done pretty well considering the playcalling and how heavy it's been on the pass.

Smith has been ok, not great. I think he's played well but I've seen him play so much better I kind of wonder what's up with him. You can talk about double-coverage, but when has he not faced that?

Williams has been a terrible disappointment. I'm not saying he can't get it back, but he doesn't have what he did last year, and right now isn't close to being the best running back on our roster.

If you look at how these three guys did last year, only one of them is performing at anything approaching their 2008 level right now, and that's Jake.

[CRA]

In the past three games Jake has given the team about what you can reasonably expect of him. Actually he's done pretty well considering the playcalling and how heavy it's been on the pass.

Smith has been ok, not great. I think he's played well but I've seen him play so much better I kind of wonder what's up with him. You can talk about double-coverage, but when has he not faced that?

Williams has been a terrible disappointment. I'm not saying he can't get it back, but he doesn't have what he did last year, and right now isn't close to being the best running back on our roster.

If you look at how these three guys did last year, only one of them is performing at anything approaching their 2008 level right now, and that's Jake.

eh, outside of the Washington game he has looked pretty good.....Fox just wouldn't give him the rock. The one team that bottled up the run game from the start.....Fox just kept feeding him. Once again, I think it is just ANOTHER example of problems w/ coaching.

[Zod]

Williams has been a terrible disappointment. I'm not saying he can't get it back, but he doesn't have what he did last year, and right now isn't close to being the best running back on our roster.

I think the blame goes more to our OL there. Williams is not a pile mover, he needs a decent performance from the OL to take advantage of. Give him a decent hole and he will break more yardage than Stewart.

Stewart on the other hand can get an extra yard or two from just his strength, a great thing when the OL is not performing well. However, he would not get the same yardage as DWill when the OL is performing as it should.

[PntherPryd]

Everyone talks about how disappointing our position players are and to me the poor offensive line play all season has been the biggest disappointment. And no, I am not excusing the play of Jake or D-will but the performance of our OL is significantly down from last year.

Whether it is in pass protection or run blocking they are currently in the bottom third when last year they were easily top five. What the hell happened?

[panthers55]

Henne threw for 115 yards against buffalo because midway through the 3rd quarter the game was already out of hand. He didn't throw for a whole quarter in a half cause he didn't need to. And who says the guy has no talent? Because he was a second round draft pick? He's got a good arm, he's reading the field good, he was poised, made the throws. If Jake played like Henne played Monday night, I guarantee you no one complains.

No one is saying anything negative about Henne, I am just not crowning him as great either. And draft pick says little about your actual NFL potential versus college performance which aren't related.

The difference between Buffalo and the Jets was that the Bills sacked him 5 times and pressured him constantly so they ran all day and his numbers were pedestrian. The Jets didn't pressure him nearly as much at all and had no sacks on him giving plenty of time to throw.

If Jake had the time that Henne had to throw in the Jets game and the running production of either game, we wouldn't be 1-3 at this point either. Also note that the Dolphins did a good job of giving him safe throws often to running backs. When is the last time we had a back with 70 plus yards receiving and rushing in the same game?? Ricky Williams had that while Brown had another 70 yards rushing.

Henne would do no better if he played for us at this point than Jake has. Bringing in a quarterback without fixing the problems won't be the solution some of you think it will be.

[Jaxel]

No one is saying anything negative about Henne, I am just not crowning him as great either. And draft pick says little about your actual NFL potential versus college performance which aren't related.

The difference between Buffalo and the Jets was that the Bills sacked him 5 times and pressured him constantly so they ran all day and his numbers were pedestrian. The Jets didn't pressure him nearly as much at all and had no sacks on him giving plenty of time to throw.

If Jake had the time that Henne had to throw in the Jets game and the running production of either game, we wouldn't be 1-3 at this point either. Also note that the Dolphins did a good job of giving him safe throws often to running backs. When is the last time we had a back with 70 plus yards receiving and rushing in the same game?? Ricky Williams had that while Brown had another 70 yards rushing.

Henne would do no better if he played for us at this point than Jake has. Bringing in a quarterback without fixing the problems won't be the solution some of you think it will be.

I agree with you, I don't believe bringing in just a QB is gonna solve our problems either, and I'm not crowning Henne as some amazing QB at the moment either. All I'm saying is don't take away from his perfomances because he's capitalized on his opportunities so far. No one is question that Sanchez, or Joe Flacco, etc, are gonna be good QB. Henne is doing the same thing, capilalizing on situations and doing what they are asking him to do.

I'm not arguing that bringing a new QB is the solution to our problems, I'm just tired of hearing, "So and So isn't doing good because of his talent." I don't know if we watched the same game, but Henne had to make the throws, and he made some pretty darn good ones. If he didn't have talent, he wouldn't be in the NFL.

Also, the Bills have a good Defense, the only QB that has had a good day against them, was Brady in the 4th quarter, every other QB including Drew brees has played aweful against the Bills.

[WCABBall]

Jake is an average QB at best. With proper playcalling and playmakers he can move a team and win a few games (ie. last season). However, he is not the kind of QB that can win games with his arm. He relies on other playmakers and a good running game. Is he the best option for us in our current situation, maybe. My problem is that we are in the current situation. Hurney has done nothing to address the QB position and therefore we are left to debate the efficientcy of an average at best QB.

Even if Jake does well this year, he is getting to the age that he needs to be replaced and this franchise will be forced to address this one way or the other. With no 1st rounder this year i am afraid that we will be talking about this again this time in 2010.

[stankowalski]

Hmm, I notice that some of the people berating Peppers are now defending Jake. So the offensive scheme can be used as a means of defending Jake's poor play, while at the same time the defensive scheme can't be used to defend Peppers' poor play (which I don't think is poor btw).

[panthers55]

Hmm, I notice that some of the people berating Peppers are now defending Jake. So the offensive scheme can be used as a means of defending Jake's poor play, while at the same time the defensive scheme can't be used to defend Peppers' poor play (which I don't think is poor btw).

I believe that you can't separate a player from the scheme unless it is clearly an individual's fault. For example you can't blame Williams' lack of production on him alone without noting the poor line play. On the other hand, the 2 fumbles are clearly on him and no one else.

On the defensive side if other guys were going nuts with sacks or we were doing a great job defending the run on the opposite side of the line away from Peppers, then you could put the blame on him. But from what I see he is no worse than the other guys. The criticism stems from the amount of money he is getting and the raised expectations based on that. Frankly no player is worth 16 million outside of Peyton Manning so far this year, so no matter what he does, it will never be enough.

[Jak3Allen]

Jake Delhomme is an avg. QB. Average at everything, accuracy, arm strength, reading defenses, avoiding blitz, etc. But hes got great heart, leadership, doesn't quit, strong will to win, and that edge you hear about that great players have. That is what makes the rest of the guys on the team want to play with him, they just like playing with him. Makes everyone want to succeed for him because of how he plays the game with an average skill-set. Delhomme makes everyone around him better, that's why he's on our team. This is easy to tell when the team as a whole is not struggling, which we might be about to break out of.

I'm looking forward to another good year.