Full story at Baltimore Sun:
A month after he was released by the Houston Texans, David Carr agreed Friday to a two-year deal to play for the Carolina Panthers.
Carr, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 draft, will serve as Jake Delhomme’s backup.
“It’s a case where we were obviously looking for someone to come in back up Jake and the opportunity to get a quarterback the caliber of David in free agency is unique,” Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said. “We thought it was a good situation and a good opportunity for us.”
I have always been of the belief that David Carr struggled in Houston mainly because he spent most of his time there lying on his back.
Immediately out of college he was burdened with the load of being an expansion quarterback and first overall draft choice. The talent surrounding him was less than satisfactory and his offensive line allowed him to be sacked 76 times on 520 passing plays.
76 times.
Break out your calculators: that’s about 15% of the time. That means that once every 7 times he dropped back to pass, he ate turf.
No quarterback can thrive in a system where he is relied on to win games when he doesn’t even have adequate protection.
That all changes this season. Because even though he is entering 2007 as a backup, Carolina fans were calling for Jake Delhomme’s head last season; and Delhomme was banged up after a couple games. The only real reason he started as many games as he did (13) is that there was no suitable backup.
But not this season. This season there is a new quarterback in town. One talented enough to steal the starting spot from Delhomme during the season; all he needs is a chance and the right environment.
Luckily for Carr, he found both.
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