Darin Gantt: Tell me he did not just say THAT

Darin Gantt, quintessential Panthers beat writer, offers his viewpoint on the Delhomme situation, since some info got leaked out about a contract extension or other kind of shit.

Well, first of all, he opens with some corny ominous tone that exudes condescension.

For starters, take a deep breath.

Then he squanders on for another paragraph or so putting forth the current situation. After that, Gantt shows his opinion, and that's when all hell breaks loose.

Any deal for Delhomme will be done to keep him as the quarterback here for the next few years, not for short-term salary cap relief. I'm going to say that again, because the lunatic fringe has struggled to understand this offseason. They're going to do a deal with Jake because they want to keep him around.

The words "lunatic fringe" is probably the closest he's come to putting together a clever quip in the last 6 months.

I mused on about how Gantt has formed into a compete Fox yes-man a while back in an earlier post. Darin did not do much to disprove my claim. It sounds like he's trying to shield Delhomme from any criticism by basically denigrating a part of the fanbase, and ultimately, his own readership. Yea, nice move there, jackass.

I post on carolinahuddle. There are a respectable # of people who are pretty intelligent who hang on this guy's every word like a religious fanatic hangs on the words of the book of Genesis. They've even claimed that Gantt is the best Panthers beat writer out of all of them. I could throw a good portion of evidence to the contrary but even if he was, ...the best ...PANTHERS beat writer, we're talking on the media scale of a market of the Panthers' caliber, not sportswriters in any market, because the best ones in the biggest markets could piss and shit all over this guy.

Gantt can throw the "good" news out of Charlotte so much like he did in this shitty one, like the Panthers achieved some kind of moral victory over their own fanbase with the Delhomme extension thing, but when he doesn't and actually tries to analyze things and you can see what this guy is thinking, he's more transparent than a fucking plate glass window.

Another note from this piece of garbage...

That means no Jay Cutler, no Derek Anderson, no Byron Leftwich, no Brett Favre, no Vinny Testaverde and likely no Pat White. Take another deep breath. Try to accept it. It's hard, I know.

Okay, who the fuck suggested the last 3 guys as any real threat to Delhomme's job security? Farve and Testaverde might soon be able to apply to AARP and Pat White, well, nobody even knows if he's going to play fucking QB at the next level. If we pick him up we might just line him up out wide in the Z so Delhomme can sail a long ball 14 feet over his head.

No, I'm sorry, what I said before about Gantt, I underestimated him. He's no longer the bumbling Fox Yes Man. No, he's graduated to the official Panthers Kool Aid man.

Darin is loading up by the bucket full for all to guzzle down. So sip the goodness that is nostalgic delusions of grandeur that Delhomme is a super-bowl capable QB like he was in 2003, after, well, only 5 or 6 years more of NFL play, the fact that he is 34 and pretty old by NFL standards, that he accounted for 9 turnovers his past 2 playoff games, that he completely fucked up against Oakland and Tampa, accounting for 4 against the awful Raiders defense and 5 in two games against the Bucs and the team kinda won in spite of his play 2 of those 3 games, his Tommy John surgery which apparently improved the mobilization of his throwing arm but who knows how long that's gonna last, and other, extensive evidence.

The Panthers are fatally committed to Delhomme. I realize they have had more success with him more than any other QB, but his time as a player is reaching his close after every season. I'm not knocking him, I like Delhomme. He's a great person, I've appreciated everything he's brought here, he's a joy to watch, but soon enough, the question's gonna force itself on the Panthers, of "who's going to be a long term QB for the future?" and Fox is either gonna answer it with Matt Moore (who has a very likely chance he could massively fail, leading us to confirm that was just a half assed attempt at shoring up a future on Fox's part) or actually get a guy with the tools that can work in a system with a solid built foundation (because a lot of first round QBs that have not become busts have been drafted by teams that had a solid core, and I believe we have a very solid core).

First round QBs may cost much, but there's a reason people draft them.