It is apparent that John Fox doesn’t care about keeping his job next season.

This week, Fox announced Jake Delhomme will remain under center for at least another week as the Carolina Panthers get ready to head west and face the Arizona Cardinals.

This is the same Arizona Cardinals that started the Panthers and more importantly, Delhomme, into a tailspin. Everyone who follows the NFL knows Delhomme was a turnover machine against the Cardinals, he tossed five interceptions and lost one fumble in last season’s 33-13 loss in the NFC playoffs.

Earlier this year, I defended Delhomme and felt he was the best chance the Panthers had to return to the playoffs. I was wrong. Delhomme, while a major part of everything that is wrong in Pantherland, is not totally to blame.

Granted it’s hard to argue against that everything Delhomme is touching these days turns from gold to stone. He has thrown a league-high 13 interceptions and has a quarterback rating of 56.5. Currently, only three other quarterbacks in the NFL have a lower quarterback rating than Delhomme, Tampa Bay’s Josh Johnson, Oakland’s JaMarcus Russell and Cleveland’s Derek Anderson. And none of those players were an eyelash away from winning the Super Bowl.

Delhomme’s fall has been surprising because the Panthers basically return the offensive unit from last season’s team that was so effective. Teams knew the Panthers were going to run the football last year. It didn’t matter because the Panthers still were effective running the ball and the duo of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart became stars.

Then the playoff game happened.

Teams on any level of football want to try and take away one thing from its opponent, so it can only move the chains one way. The Panthers’ opponents tried to take away the run, but with Delhomme being able to find Steve Smith or Muhsid Muhammad with great regularity last year, teams couldn’t put eight players up near the line of scrimmage.

After the Cardinals exposed a large weakness in the Panthers’ offense, teams have been able to duplicate the defensive plan — make Delhomme beat you with his arm. Earlier in his career, Delhomme was able to burn the opposition for sneaking an eighth man into the box and hit Smith or Muhammad for long plays, which generally resulted in touchdowns. Not so recently.

Instead of finding his receivers, Delhomme is hurling interceptions.

Delhomme is saying all the right things to the media and the fans by taking all of the responsibility for his performance. While it’s refreshing in today’s me first attitude in professional sports, actions speak louder than words and Delhomme’s actions need to be silenced.

Fox had the chance to make the move this week after the Panthers lost at home to a very average Buffalo team. Instead of turning to Matt Moore or AJ Feeley, Fox went back to Delhomme.

The Panthers attempted to plan for its future a few years back when it signed former No. 1 pick David Carr as Delhomme’s backup. But Carr jumped ship and is now backing up the Giants’ Eli Manning in New York. Also, why the Panthers weren’t in the bidding for Matt Cassel this summer is troubling.

It appears the writing may be on wall for Fox because the Panthers are currently 2-4 and have a long way to climb before they can put themselves back into the playoff picture.

If Fox is fired at the end of the season, Panther fans can’t assume Bill Cowher will jump at the chance to take over the team which won’t have a reliable quarterback and its best defensive player, Julius Peppers, will be on the free agent market.

The season of promise for the Panthers has turned into a season of nightmares.