Think about it. With Delhomme shelved indefinitely, Carolina's offense cannot and will not be as productive. Moody wide receiver Steve Smith could become as difficult to control for his own team as he usually is for the opposition. Wins are going to be tougher to predict than will the timetable for Delhomme's return, which might not be until sometime around Thanksgiving, if then.
The longer Delhomme is out, the worse it bodes for Fox. It is not a lot different for Fox in Carolina than it would have been for Giants coach Tom Coughlin in New York had his quarterback, Eli Manning, been out for a month, or than it is for Mike Nolan in San Francisco, where quarterback Alex Smith could miss the next month with a separated shoulder.
Coaches need to win, and more often than not, they need their ace quarterbacks and standout players to do it. When one key player -- especially a quarterback -- goes down, the losses tend to pile up, as do the calls for the coach's job.
In a sport in which coaches crave control, it's ironic how little of it they actually have. As Fox is about to discover, many head coaches' jobs and futures can be as fragile as a quarterback's elbow tendon.