Here at Cat Scratch Reader we have counted down the final 100 days leading up to the Carolina Panthers season opener by for at least the past ten years. We’ve always done this by highlighting the current player on the roster whose jersey number matches the day on the countdown. This year, we decided to change that up a bit by counting down our own list of the Top 100 Panthers of all time. This does not correspond to jersey number, does not need to be somebody who wore a jersey, and will in no way be controversial.
#9. Jake Delhomme
We’re inside the top 10 now, which means we’ve got fan favorites all over the place. Today, we look at one of the most widely liked fan favorites of all time, the Ragin’ Cajun himself, Jake Delhomme.
Delhomme had one of the more unlikely rises to starting NFL quarterback that you’ll ever see, though in hindsight, there were some early signs of future success. He played college football at what was then known as Southwestern Louisiana (now known as University of Louisiana at Lafeyette). There, starting in his freshman year, he was a standout passer at the mid-major level. Despite a decorated career and some elite counting stats, Delhomme went undrafted and signed up the road with the New Orleans Saints. He spent a couple of years on the Saints practice squad and in NFL Europe, where he backed up Kurt Warner one year and won a championship the next as part of a two quarterback system. He ended up spending six seasons in New Orleans but rarely saw the field, though he did show some promise in some fill-in duty and in the preseason.
He finally escaped New Orleans in search of a starting gig and found his way to Carolina, who had just gone 7-9 with 36 year old journeyman Rodney Peete as their starter. He started the opener on the bench, but it didn’t take long for his number to get called. After a first half that saw the Panthers pick up one first down while gaining a total of 16 yards (after losing a total of 18 yards over their last three drives), John Fox went with Delhomme. The Panthers wouldn’t look back. Delhomme would lead four scoring drives (while also throwing two interceptions), the last of which ended with the game winning touchdown to Ricky Proehl with 16 seconds left.
That half a game would prove to be the perfect encapsulation of the Jake Delhomme experience. He ended up leading the Cardiac Cats to a surprise appearance in the Super Bowl with five fourth quarter comebacks and seven game winning drives in the fourth quarter during the regular season and one more game winning drive in the playoffs. He went toe to toe with Tom Brady in the Super Bowl and threw what still stands as the longest pass in Super Bowl history, but he and the Panthers came up short in the game.
He was never the most efficient passer, and he was prone to turning the ball over with his gunslinging ways, but he gave his guys a chance and he wasn’t afraid to force the issue. And he always saved his best play for when the stakes were the highest. He earned a Pro Bowl nomination in 2005 and led the Panthers to an 11-5 record. His performance took a slight dip in 2006, and that would prove to be early signs of the approaching fall off.
He started the 2007 season very strong but suffered an elbow injury in Week 3 that would ultimately require Tommy John surgery. He would return to throw a game winning touchdown on the final play of Week 1 of the 2008 season. He would recapture his Cardiac Cat magic with another four fourth quarter comebacks and five game winning drive, but he finished the season with just 15 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. The season ended with one of if not the most depressing performances Panthers fans have seen. He threw five interceptions and lost a fumble in a 33-14 beatdown at the hands of the Cardinals, and he would never be the same. Fresh off a new contract extension, he turned the ball over five times in the season opener of the next season. Through six games, he had thrown just four touchdowns while getting picked off 13 times and losing a pair of fumbles. He would finish that season with eight touchdowns and 21 turnovers. That would be the end of his career in Carolina.
He went on to spend a mess of a season in Cleveland in 2010. Then, in 2011, he was brought in by the Texans as an emergency backup with a couple of their quarterbacks on the shelf. He came off the bench in the last game of the season and almost ended his career just the way it started, with a game winning drive with just 14 seconds on the clock. Unfortunately, a botched snap ruined the potential game winning 2-point conversion, and that would be the last snap of Delhomme’s career.
Delhomme is about as pure a Carolina Panther as there is. He remained a very vocal fan of the team after his retirement and rejoined the organization as a color commentator on the radio broadcast, where he still refers to the Panthers with “we” and “our” pronouns when calling the game. Few players are as synonymous with the Panthers as Delhomme, and for that, he lands at number nine in the list of top 100 Panthers of all time.
