Tony Pike, Brian St. Pierre split starting reps

By Pat Yasinskas

Some very interesting news out of Carolina this afternoon. Coach John Fox announced Brian St. Pierre will be the starting quarterback for Sunday’s game with Baltimore.

Say whatever you want about it because the alternative was rookie Tony Pike, a 2010 sixth-round draft pick. But I’m going to say this is a terrible move by Fox and it might even be a final act of defiance for a lame-duck coach.

[+] EnlargeAP Photo/Paul Spinelli
Panthers coach John Fox has opted to start journeyman QB Brian St. Pierre over rookie Tony Pike.St. Pierre’s a guy who has bounced around the NFL for eight seasons. He’s thrown a total of five passes in regular-season games. He’s about to turn 31. St. Pierre has had so little real NFL experience that he was still eligible for the practice squad when the Panthers signed him a couple of weeks ago.

Look, if anybody in the NFL thought St. Pierre had a legitimate shot to be a starting quarterback, he would have had his shot long ago. He’s nothing more than a guy and this is further evidence of why Fox is on his way out in Carolina.

Although he’s done some great things for the Panthers, the one thing Fox never has been willing to do is change. He’s as conservative as they come. Yes, St. Pierre may have been around longer than Pike. But you don’t make a move like this when you’re in a full-blown youth movement.

Back in 2007 when Jake Delhomme got hurt and it was becoming obvious David Carr couldn’t play, Fox coaxed 79-year-old Vinny Testaverde out of retirement. That made sense. The Panthers had a pretty good team otherwise and they were able to scrape out a respectable season around a dinosaur.

But St. Pierre is no Testaverde and this isn’t 2007. Fox has refused to embrace the youth movement the Panthers decided to go with.

I’m not saying Pike is great by any means and he probably wouldn’t solve all of Carolina’s problems. But, much like Jimmy Clausen, who was benched once and is out this week with a concussion, Pike was a draft pick this year.

Part of the plan by ownership and the front office was to see what they’ve got in their young guys. Now that the Panthers are so far out of the playoff picture, that should be the plan more than ever.

Maybe Pike steps in and turns out to be the next Tom Brady. It’s not likely, but it’s at least possible. We already know for sure that St. Pierre is not the next Brady. Why not at least give Pike a look?

Fox is a good coach in a lot of ways. He’ll end up being a coach somewhere else and he’ll probably have success.

But Fox isn’t doing any favors for a front office and an owner who started this youth movement. He’s being stubborn and conservative until the end and that’s not how you handle a youth movement.

Just look at Tampa Bay’s Raheem Morris. He embraced the youth movement, threw his young guys out there and tried to figure out who could play. That led to some very rough times last year. Now, the Buccaneers are winning and seeing the upside of the youth movement.

The Panthers won’t see any upside from their youth movement until the next coach is in place.

 

i have to assume this is a ploy so that Pike doesnt have pressure all week. i think he'll be playing before the 1st quarter is over unless pierre is lighting it up.

 

by lighting it up... do you mean throws one TD pass? because the panthers haven't scored a TD in the 1st Q all season... they have the fewest points scored in the league... 1st Q and the whole game

I think only once, a QB has come out of the game that wasn't injured... St Pier or wtf ever his name is throws 4 picks and fumbles a few snaps... maybe, Pike gets put in... or if there's an injury. I'd be surprised to see more the 15 pass attempts the whole game. I guess I'm just a little confused on what you call lighting it up or why you think we see Pike by the 1st Q

It's makes perfect sence to me why Fox is starting St. Pete. He's never been higher then 3rd on any depth chart, but he's been to a shitload more practices and training camps and watched a lot more film learning to read defenses and studied more NFL playbooks then Pike. I'm sure he's run enough practice teams to know what an NFL QB is supposed to look like. Hell, he's got more experience then Matt Moore, and had the guy been on the roster to start the season, he probably would have been starting then.

 

I wish you would come to the board and post something asshole... Vinny was 79 huh? And Carr couldn't play? Maybe Fox learned something then and can plainly fucking see in practice that we don't have a QB on the roster that can fucking play.

Pike might be the next Tom Brady huh? Wow...

doushe bag

 

How the fuck is it an "act of defiance"? The people who've handcuffed Fox with personnel are the same people who signed Brian St. Pierre. Clausen and Moore are out. Pike was a spread QB and has a shit arm.

What is the guy supposed to do?

 

Fox did embrace the youth movement. He cut his favorite QB for a young guy and then drafted a younger one. Then another, and 5'10 worth of another one for some fucking reason.
That defense is young and most of it's good. Him being pissed about the Harris/budget thing doesn't disguise that Martin has been good. That he's not starting a guy who doesn't even have his throwing motion down, a guy who never should have played this year, I'm OK with. That St. Pierre was all we could come up with, not much he can do about that.


Guy's trying to win football games. Nothing's changed, but with loss 8 and Baltimore being a pretty fucking good team, it's a good time to pile on.

 

Fox doesn't make personnel decisions... so why is it everyone keeps saying he cut this guy or didn't sign that guy?

 

he has his hands in this, regardless of whether or not he likes it. They had a budget, which he didn't set, but then he's supposed to make things as competitive as possible after that.

 

Fox has to be loving this shit. He can do just about anything he wants right now and doesn't fucking matter.

He can't get fired. Hell he could probably bring a hooker to the game and let her blow him on the sideline and Richardson wouldn't fire him. He won't be back. No matter how bad this team plays this year he'll still get himself a good gig somewhere next year.

Just sit back and enjoy watching the train wreck.

And on what a train wreck it is

 

I would really like to think that Fox is a professional. You can give on a hopeless situation and still be professional. Some of the things that have came out lately point to a character flaw. He's getting paid over 6 million dollars for this year. Just shut up, do the best job that you can, and walk away to your next job. Finge point is never a good thing, because there are always fingers pointing back at you.