Carr shifts gears

By Anthony Bialy  |   Tuesday, April 10, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

Carolina Panthers
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I saw one play last year which summarized why David Carr hated life in Houston so much. In Week 1 of the 2006 season, I switched from the AFC game I was watching to check the Texans-Eagles contest on Fox just before halftime to find that the Texans had the ball with their backs near their own end zone. As the players lined up, I noticed trouble: Houston had a tight end assigned to Jevon Freaking Kearse. Why not just put a lawn chair in his way?

I screamed that observation out loud, but nobody from the Texans' coaching staff heard me in time to adjust, and, on the ensuing play, Kearse predictably brushed aside the helpless blocker en route to leveling Carr. If a pinhead like me sitting at home can see the glaring inadequacies in the Texans' schemes, Carr's release -- which led to his opportunity for a fresh start as Carolina's backup -- is the best resolution to the mutually miserable situation that existed during his first stint.

The doomed play I observed was a typical scene from Carr's time as the Texans' quarterback. He suffered a total of 249 sacks, one away from precisely 50 per season; he started a total of 75 games in Houston, which means, if you saw a Texans game where Carr was brought down three times, that was a safer-than-average afternoon for him. The one person who suffered the most physical pain due to almost-Texan Tony Boselli's shoulder troubles other than Boselli himself was Carr.

At the same time, Carr never fulfilled his promise even factoring in the woefully inadequate blocking. He leaves Texas with a middling 75.5 passer rating and six more interceptions than touchdowns (65 picks to 59 TDs). Both those stats are unimpressive, and neither can be dumped entirely on the personnel surrounding Carr. It's why even the first player drafted is a gamble: For every John Elway, there's a Tim Couch, and for every Peyton, an Eli. Still, in the games I've seen him play, Carr has shown enough flashes of proficiency to indicate he's not an utter bust.

That's why Carr is ideal for Carolina as much as Carolina is ideal for Carr. Not many teams get an opportunity to add a player talented enough to be selected first overall as a backup, while the player will finally get a chance to do something he never got to after being pushed out of the lifeboat in Houston: watch and learn.

He's got an accomplished veteran starter in front of him in Jake Delhomme, and it may be the most overused cliché regarding quarterback teammates with different levels of experience and success, but the starter should be able to mentor his new backup. It has to be considered a demotion, but what Carr learns without the pressure of attempting to lead an expansion franchise to triumph will serve him well in future opportunities to be a number one.

And, from the Panthers' perspective, they're now equipped with a better backup than Chris Weinke. It may not be that grand of an accomplishment, but it's still an improvement.

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