With last week’s release of Jake Delhomme, Matt Moore became the Panthers’ starting quarterback.
And he knows it.
“From what they are telling me, yeah, I do feel like it’s my team now,” Moore told Steve Reed of CarolinaGrowl.com.
But it came as a surprise to Moore, who said he was “shocked” when the team told his agent last week that Delhomme was out.
And even though Moore realizes that the Panthers might add another quarterback, he’s not worried.
“I feel good right now regardless of whom they bring in,” Moore said. “That’s not to say there won’t be competition. There’s always competition. But I feel good and feel solid and being given this opportunity I’m going to try to make the best of it. But am I threatened? Not really.”
Still, there’s a fundamental difference between being the backup who plays when the starter is injured and the starter who possibly is peering over his shoulder. The ball sometimes gets gripped a little tighter, and each bad pass brings doubt into the starter’s mind as to whether the hook might be coming.