Why Matt Moore Will Not Start for the Panthers

I understand why Panther fans want to see Matt Moore cut his teeth in a couple games. Why not? The Panthers are essentially out of the playoff hunt. Let’s see if the kid is the second coming of Tony Romo. One problem with that is Jerry Richardson is a businessman first and a football fanatic second. The Matt Moore bubble will burst when he throws four picks and drops two fumbles and the Panthers get blown out by Seattle with still Dallas coming. Most fans will prefer to watch the game from home leading to even more empty seats.

Starting Matt Moore is essentially throwing the towel in on the season and every time a football franchise has done that attendance usually plummets. This creates a problem businessmen refer to as "lost profits" (maybe you’ve heard it?) which makes Jerry cringe more than a DeShaun Foster fumble.

John Fox agrees but in a more diplomatic manner:

We think (Moore) has promise and he's shown some of those abilities, but we've seen some of the other, too."

I assume he means the INT’s and the bad passes. Moore does have his positives: good arm, nice height, makes his reads fairly quickly and has a quick release. He hasn’t always made the right read and hasn’t been very accurate on some throws. Overall he looks pretty good back there.

Another aspect is the ultra-focus on the QB play at this point. I think if either Vinny or Carr can start they will. Fox will try to somehow get five starts out of Vinny and Carr to finish out the season. I admit that is the one flaw in my logic, it seems almost impossible to get five more starts out of those two. I think Fox will keep running Carr out there crossing his fingers Carr suddenly finds his mojo. Regardless of who starts or finishes, Panther fans will focus their criticism on the QB (and John Fox).

"Asked about the blame falling on him and the quarterbacks, he said, "That's what we sign up for, either as a quarterback or a head coach. When you're not having success, there's going to be plenty of blame.
"Hey, we're always playing for jobs. ... I think it applies to everybody; I think everybody understands that."

David Carr was brought in under the pretense that if Jake Delhomme got hurt we had a "starter" as a back-up. The "team" of people that made that decision sorely missed and the Panthers are feeling the effect of that failure. That was our single signature signing over this past off-season.

For a contrasting franchise the Panthers need look no further than their own division. The Bucs signed Jeff Garcia on March 3rd, 2007 (It doesn't appear the Panthers entertained Jeff Garcia) and are now 7-4 and in control of the division. No one questions the value Garcia brings to that offense. I wonder if Garcia’s price tag of 2-year $5M per season was a little too rich for Jerry. We signed David Carr to a 2-year $3M per year contract as back-up whereas Garcia probably saw the better opportunity to start in TB instead of competing with Jake.

So instead of competing for a playoff spot the Panther brass find themselves hoping to get through the season without losing 50% of their fan base. Starting Matt Moore this soon will only make it worse.