The Panthers announced they have agreed to extend the contract of quarterback Jake Delhomme, which secures their long-term commitment to him at the all-important position and also provides some salary-cap relief. Delhomme was in the final year of his contract and was scheduled to count more than $11 million against the cap, but now has a new five-year deal that agent Rick Smith said is worth $42.5 million with $20 million in guarantees. Smith said the contract’s structure was “extremely complicated” but will save the Panthers at least a couple million in 2009 cap space.

The haters immediately went to town on this deal saying it stinks.  The problem is that we don’t know all the specifics on it yet and we may never know since the team doesn’t release contract numbers.

I do have to ask though – isn’t that a lot of money to guarantee a 34-year-old quarterback?

Jake, I love how you play with grit but the fans are going to get riled up quickly if things don’t start off well for you in ’09 especially with those kinds of numbers printed on your contract.

The biggest problem I have (and I’m not one of the Jake haters) is that the team was on the hook for roughly $11 million for next season.  If they are only going to save a couple million then this seems like a pretty rich contract to me.

He was given the franchise tag this offseason by the Caroilna Panthers and had to feel as if the team would negotiate a new contract with him to take him well beyond the 200 season.

Not so fast, Jordan. (more…)