Jake Delhomme was playing great last season before he injured his right elbow bad enough that he needed Tommy John Surgery to repair it.  He is the unquestioned leader of the offense and it showed when he was out and the Panthers ran out Vinny Testaverde, David Carr and Matt Moore to start games in his place.  It appears that the surgery has been a success as Steve Smith thinks Delhomme is throwing better than ever in practice.  Delhomme played in 3 games (all starts) last season for the Panthers and he completed 55 of 86 passes (64%) for 624 yards with 8 TD passes and 1 interception (111.8 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 6 times for 26 yards (4.3 ypc).  Look for Delhomme to add to his already impressive career numbers as long as he can stay healthy.  Delhomme has now played in 70 games (65 starts) in his major league career and he has completed 1,206 of 2,020 passes (59.7%) for 14,589 yards with 100 TD passes and 64 interceptions (85.2 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 130 times for 249 yards (1.9 ypc) with 5 TD runs.

Matt Moore was an undrafted rookie last season and he showed enough to earn the job as the #2 QB of the Panthers as long as he can beat out Brett Basanez and Lester Ricard.  Moore was not bad last season but he did make some big mistakes during some games.  The Panthers hope that Moore has learned from those mistakes so that they won’t be hurting if something happens to Delhomme.  Moore played in 9 games (3 starts) last season for the Panthers and he completed 63 of 111 passes (56.8%) for 730 yards with 3 TD passes and 5 interceptions (67.0 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 3 times for 5 yards (1.7 ypc).

Brett Basanez will battle Matt Moore for the #2 QB job but he will likely lose in this competition.  He didn’t play last season due to injury so it will be interesting to see how he responds to this challenge.  He has played in 1 game (0 starts) in his NFL career and he has completed 6 of 11 passes (54.5%) for 56 yards with 0 TD passes and 1 interception (30.9 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 1 time for 2 yards (2.0 ypc).

Lester Ricard has never played in a NFL game but it’s not like the QBs behind Delhomme are light years ahead of him in talent.  It will be interesting to see how he plays in training camp and the pre season seeing how his future job will depend on it.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2008 SEASON:  B-