Pro. Jake Delhomme

[Turbine]

1 year 3 playoff wins

UN BE LIEV ABLE

S U P E R B O W L BOUND

[Turner]

Originally posted by CajunFanatic91
GEAUX JAKE! GEAUX JAKE! GEAUX JAKE! LOUISIANA HAS PRODUCED A LEGEND!

He has got to be the highest rated quarterback in the playoffs.

[Turner]

Hats off to Sam Mills

[1stTake]

If Bustle can't use this as a recruiting tool, we in trouble.

[Turbine]

I wish I could explain how I spent 3 years and several thousand posts on saintsreport.com touting how good I thought Jake Delhomme was or could be.

I actually had to stay away all season so as not to blow my own horn, all I can say it is kinda cool being right for once in my life.

[BrockMeaux]

I can vouch...Turbine has done some SERIOUS Jake-backing on saintsreport. I didn't always agree, but on this night, his hard work and support of the Ragin Cajun came to fruition.

Must be that Abbeville thing. We have ways of being right...*lol*

[CajunCharlie]

I don't know too many times when you have not been right Turbine. You have a cool head. Are you sure that you are a Cajun?:confused:

[NewsCopy]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Jake Delhomme has already played in a World Bowl. The Super Bowl sounds much better for the feisty Cajun from Louisiana.

"When we get on the plane tonight when it is just going to be us, our Panther family, it's going to be a lot of proud guys that know that we have worked to get here," Delhomme said. "It's not over yet. That's the big thing. It's not over yet."

Delhomme's numbers weren't all that impressive in the Carolina Panthers' 14-3 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday's NFC championship game. Delhomme was only 9-for-14 for 101 yards and a touchdown, but he didn't make many mistakes.

"Jake had to earn our trust and he did," receiver Muhsin Muhammad said. "He was really jacked up for this game and sometimes you cannot understand him when he gets in the huddle with his Cajun accent. He came into the game with a lot of enthusiasm and led us down the field with some great plays."

Delhomme was helped out having running back Stephen Davis, a workhorse back who ran for career-best 1,444 yards this season, in the lineup after missing practice all week with a strained left quadriceps.

Davis said he decided early in the day he would play after talking to his mother and wife. Davis said his quad was sore and planned to relax this week to let it heal.

Davis showed right away the injury wouldn't bother him, opening the game with a 9-yard run and finished with 19 carries for 76 yards.

"That's one of my things, to set the tone on offense," Davis said.

DeShaun Foster, a second-year running back who spent the year as Davis' understudy, had 60 yards on 14 carries and made perhaps the play of the game.

Foster broke four tackles for a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:11 left in the third quarter. The Panthers led 14-3 and were headed to the Super Bowl just two seasons after going 1-15.

Nothing was going to get in the way of his first career rushing touchdown.

"That was basically it, just determination," he said. "It was blocked up fairly well. (Brian) Dawkins made a real good play. He made me cut it up. The rest was just fight and get in the zone."

The rest of the story

DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer

[Turbine]

I posted this question on saintsReport.com and wanted your thoughts as well.

Jakes humility is becoming legendary . . .

I just remember Jake showing the same humility after the Dallas win, and every preseason game, even after his near perfect performance last year in relief.

I'm thinking Haslett takes kindly to a bit of cocky talk, and perhaps views it as sign of mental strength in a player, the sign of a field leader.

You will never get this from Jake, and I'm just wondering if any of you thought this hurt him with ex linebacker Jim Haslett.

[CDeb]

Originally posted by Doug
Jake was never drafted, get over it.

Jake is the starting quarterback for a Super Bowl team.

Get over it.

[NewsCopy]

Twenty years ago, Bill Parcells picked Scott Brunner as the Giants' starting quarterback. Picked him over Phil Simms.

A rookie head coach made his first major decision, and promptly blew it.

From that dubious beginning, Parcells' track record obviously improved immensely when it came to talent evaluation.

A year ago, he arrived at Valley Ranch as a Hall-of-Famer in waiting.

What Big Bill did with the Cowboys in his first season simply accelerated his Canton credentials to something along the lines of a first- ballot, unanimous choice.

Even, however, with 10 wins and the playoff trip, let the record show Parcells' first season with the Cowboys produced yet another résumé smudge mark when it came to evaluating a quarterback.

Now we know. The Cowboys blew it big-time on Jake Delhomme.

But even by my normal standards, that is the cheapest of second guesses.

Yet ...

Here's Delhomme, quarterbacking the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship Game today in Philadelphia. Neither player nor team was supposed to be here.

And a major reason both made it has, of course, been Delhomme, who just as easily could have been a Cowboy this season. In fact, those close to Delhomme say the Cowboys were his first choice as he sought to relocate from New Orleans.

Last March, Parcells' third month on the job, Cajun Jake was at Valley Ranch, hoping to find a free-agent home after spending six years with the Saints doing basically nothing. With an emphasis on nothing.

Delhomme had pine sores from riding so much bench.

Hard to believe, but when Jake showed up at Valley Ranch 10 months ago, both Quincy Carter (two seasons) and Chad Hutchinson (one season) had more NFL playing experience than this 6-year "veteran."

Right away, that was a problem, admits Jerry Jones.

"[Delhomme] would have given us four young quarterbacks," he said, including Clint Stoerner with Hutchinson and Carter. "At the time, we really didn't have a good read on the three we had. Chad had been the starter the year before, but Bill had already said the competition would be wide open. Based on what we knew, Delhomme was like Stoerner."

Ouch. But the comparison is basically true. Stoerner, who eventually was cut by Parcells in training camp, had hung around here on the quarterbacking fringe for three years.

Still, the Cowboys were prepared to offer Delhomme a contract last March. But the decision was made to low-ball him on money. In Carolina, where Delhomme visited after Valley Ranch, the thinking was much different, at least on money.

The Panthers were deemed foolish by some for giving Jake a 2-year, $4 million deal. At that price, Delhomme wisely signed with the Panthers.

The rest of the story

By Randy Galloway
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

[NewsCopy]

FOXBORO - Now that he's in the Super Bowl, Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme is a nearly a household name. Years ago, before he appeared on the NFL radar screen, he almost became a member of the Jets.

The Jets came "really, really close" to signing Delhomme during the 1997 season, Patriots coach Bill Belichick revealed yesterday. At the time, Belichick was the Jets' assistant head coach under Bill Parcells.

Delhomme, out of work for three months after being waived by the Saints in the 1997 preseason, was flown to Hofstra to audition before the Jets' coaches and scouts. The way Belichick remembers it, the Jets, intrigued by Delhomme's potential, brought him in for a second tryout. He was a virtual unknown, a rookie free agent from Louisiana-Lafayette.

The rest of the story