You have to admit, he has the jersey number for it! With the Donovan McNabb trade to the Redskins, the chances of Jason Campbell becoming a Panther went from slim to "Oh my gawd this is a big deal!" There are a lot of things to address in a situation like this, on whether a trade for Jason Campbell would be a good move or a bad one. But with our depth chart being ultra-thin at QB, this might be a perfect time to grab a nice young player to stick on our roster in case Matt Moore's has an epic fail!
Many things to debate on a trade like this, but first let's get his stats out there.
In his last two years he has completed 642 out of 1013 passes for 6863 yards, 33 touchdowns, and 21 interceptions.
That's not bad at all. He's shown constant improvement as well, completing career highs in receiving yards, passing attempts, completions, touchdowns, and passer ratings every year he has been in the league, all of this behind a questionable offensive line that doesn't have a blind-side tackle.
I know we all love Matt Moore, heck, I firmly believe that he's the next Tony Romo. But what if he bombs? We've got no one behind him right now that can be a proven starter in this league. It would take a lot of things to get Jason Campbell to work in Carolina though. Here are some of the ones off the top of my head.
The Redskins will have to accept a low round pick or a pick from next year.
The Panther's draft have already been pretty much cleaned out. We're without a 1st rounder or a 5th in one of the best drafts we've seen in a while. If the Redskins want a 3rd or higher for him, they're probably not going to get it from us. If they'll accept lower than that, we could probably send them a pick for next year, and additional picks based on how Campbell performs and if he starts on our team or not, which becomes a non-issue if we go with Matt Moore.
Jason Campbell will have to accept a backup role
Matt Moore has already been named the starter for next year, so there won't be any competition going into training camp, at least officially. The Preseason will tell all of course, but for training camp at least Jason Campbell will have to accept that he's a backup. Plain and simple, though a lot of QB's will not go to a team where they're not guaranteed at least a fight for the main job.
A favorable contract extension
Jerry Richardson is probably one of the head negotiators between the players union and the owners right now in the new CBA agreement. He's not a Daniel Snyder or the Dark Lord of Oakland, he's going to want to get value for his money. If we trade for him and Matt Moore bombs, he's going to probably demand starting money and this becomes a non-issue. But if Matt Moore shows he can be our starter, for Jason Campbell to work here long-term we're going to have to strike a compromise between starting money and backup money, somewhere between the 3-5 million dollars a year range. He's not going to find elite money here.
Finally, we could try to wait till next year and hope that Jason Campbell doesn't get traded. Good luck with that by the way. I doubt a team like the Eagles are going to wait a year to release a player of his caliber to FA and not get anything back back in return. He's going to get traded.
The question is, do we want him?