While the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles wait out a lightning delay in Charlotte it’s a good time to make some fantasy football observations about two quarterbacks coming off of injury seasons. During the first 10 minutes of play Donovan McNabb looks reasonably sharp.

He’s connected with four receivers mostly on short routes hitting them in stride and letting them run after the catch. One such play went to Brian Westbrook on first down. He caught a three or four yard pass and turned it into a 14 yard gain. McNabb also hit rookie DeSean Jackson with an 11-yard catch along the sidelines on one third down.

After going 10 for 13 for 97 yards with a touchdown last week against Pittsburgh McNabb appears to be in regular season form. Fox Sports also talked during the pregame show about how McNabb and coach Andy Reid spent more time talking this offseason allowing McNabb to go into the season not only more physically healthy than he has been since tearing an ACL in 2006 but also mentally healthy.

Jake Delhomme, on the other hand, didn’t look so good in his comeback from Tommy John surgery. In fairness, the Eagles defense had him stymied via pass rush. But a couple of his passes he did get off looked like they didn’t have a lot of zip. There was not a large sample to draw from, however.

McNabb probably should rank somewhere in the top seven to nine quarterbacks this season – if he can stay healthy and play a full schedule for the first time since 2003 he should post low-to-mid 20 touchdown totals. Grab a backup, though. He has missed 16 games the last four seasons.

Delhomme is a little trickier. He was fantastic during the first three games of last season until he went down with fairly dramatic shoulder issues. I see him as a potentially high-upside, mid-to-late round draftee who could provide some surprise help for your teams if you choose to avoid drafting quarterbacks until later on. But he’s not someone I would count on as a starter at least right away. They’ll be starting a rookie left tackle, Jeff Otah, and coming off of that injury I’d be hesitant to put too much stock in his recovery just yet.

They say in baseball that it usually takes a pitcher a full season to get his velocity and control back after TJ surgery. Well, pitchers don’t have defensive linemen chasing them around while they are trying to throw strikes. If you grab Delhomme do so with the intent of looking at everything he gives you this season as a bonus.