jake delhomme released

Any football fan with half a brain who was paying attention last year could have seen this one coming, but the news is stunning just the same: The Carolina Panthers have released quarterback Jake Delhomme. His fall from grace in Carolina is crazy considering all he's accomplished: He led the Panthers to a Super Bowl and two NFC Championship games, amassing a record of 58-40. But the likable 35-year-old will probably be remembered more for the way he completely fell apart in the '08 playoffs, turning the ball over six times in an ugly loss to the Arizona Cardinals. That horrid play didn't prevent the Panthers from giving Delhomme a truckload of guaranteed money the next season, making many league observers question what the Panthers were doing. Delhomme rewarded his skeptics when he picked up in '09 right where he left off in '08, vomiting five turnovers in another ugly loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener. Things didn't get much better after that, and he threw a career-high 18 interceptions in '09 despite missing the last five games of the year with a broken middle finger.

Don't cry for Delhomme, though. In one of the nation's worst economic climates in decades, he will earn nearly $13 million in guaranteed money the Panthers still owe him. The question now becomes where Delhomme will end up. Without having much solid evidence, by way of pure speculation, here are my two leading teams that may consider putting Delhomme under center:

1. The Oakland Raiders. I realize the Raiders have a hefty investment in their overweight and under-brained starter JaMarcus Russell, but even Al Davis must realize that the Raiders are a decent quarterback away from staying relevant in the largely mediocre AFC West. They have a defense, they have a decent running game, all they need now is someone who cares more about the X's and O's than about diamonds and fur coats.

2. The Seattle Seahawks. Seattle is going through a transition right now, getting rid of first-year coach Jim Mora and bringing in Pete Carroll from USC to right the ship. The team has many problems, including a major one at the quarterback position. Matt Hasselbeck was a quality quarterback in the NFL for years, but his recent string of injuries shows that it's time to go in another direction. Backup Seneca Wallace has all the starting-quarterback potential of my coffee table, so it couldn't hurt to bring in Delhomme for at least a year to help groom a successor they can find in the upcoming draft.

Delhomme will at least get a shot as a backup somewhere, even if he'd be the highest-paid backup in the league.