News

Matt Moore's confidence has soared, and the numbers bear out that improvement. (PHOTO: ANDREW MASON / PANTHERS.COM)

CHARLOTTE -- Has Matt Moore positioned himself to make a run at the starting quarterback's job next summer?

The fact that the topic has arisen in chatter about the Panthers -- and was broached at head coach John Fox's press conference Monday -- is a blessed development for the team, since it wouldn't have been a consideration had Moore struggled during his December stint as the Panthers' starting quarterback.

But Moore's performance to date -- and his steady week-to-week improvement -- has not been merely palpable, but impossible to ignore. So when the question was posed to Fox on Monday afternoon, he knew exactly what to say to avoid tipping his hand.

"I knew this would come up, but I'm just worried about next week -- really, tomorrow first -- and then as we get ready to play the New Orleans Saints, what the week after that brings," Fox said. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We're going to do our best to get him ready to play against the New Orleans Saints."

It's not something to which Moore pays any mind.

"We've got one more game; we're going to finish strong," Moore said. "I don't get to make that decision, (so) I'm not worried about that at all."

Besides, a quarterback doesn't make the case for an expanded role by politicking; he does so with his play. A 3-1 record as a starter this season and a 5-2 mark overall including his three games at the close of the 2007 season speak loudly enough.

"He's got the size, the arm strength, a lot of the tangible things," Fox said. "The things you don't know are the intangibles, and I think I've seen him grow with every start, whether it was two years ago or this year."

And the offense has evolved with him. He possesses more mobility than Jake Delhomme, who started 11 games before breaking a finger against the New York Jets on Nov. 30, so the offense began incorporating more rollouts to capitalize.

"There's certain things he's more comfortable at doing that we've had to tweak a little bit," Fox said. "but he's gotten better each week and I think he'll continue that."

And y one key measure -- quarterback rating -- Moore is quantifiably among the league's best at his position since becoming the starter. Only San Diego's Philip Rivers and the Giants' Eli Manning have better ratings this month than Moore; he stands above luminaries like Indianapolis' Peyton Manning, Minnesota's Brett Favre and New England's Tom Brady, among others:

To take it further, it's worth examining Moore's performance compared with other Panthers quarterbacks who started at least three of the final five games of a season (see table below). Moore's interception percentage is easily the lowest among that group, and his rating in that span is surpassed only by Steve Beuerlein in 1999, who nearly slung the Panthers into the playoffs on his right arm alone, only falling short by a tiebreaker.

With Jonathan Stewart flourishing in the finest month of his career, Moore's yardage doesn't stack up with Beuerlein or Delhomme in 2004, when he was faced with a somewhat unbalanced offense and daunting task.

Moore admittedly dismisses the numbers -- "at the end of the day, the only stat that matters is the 'W' or the loss," he maintained after Sunday's 41-9 win -- but they nonetheless offer an insight into how Moore has flourished, something that few could have forecast.

"It's like most backup quarterbacks in this league: you never really know until they start playing," Fox said.