What is up with Jake Delhomme? Or Marc Bulger? Or Jake Plummer? Or Tom Brady? Or Matt Hasselbeck?

That’s what fantasy owners all over the place are wondering right now, only with a lot more exclamation points. If Week 1 sparked overreaction, Week 2 sent many into all-out panics over their first-round running back, their receiving corps and _ particularly, it seems _ their quarterback.

For good reason, the guys under center don’t get top billing at draft time. You usually only have to start one, they’re not the most consistent scorers and, in the end, there’s just not a huge difference in points between most of them. Once the year begins, though, the fact that you only start one (again, usually) becomes the problem.

If Cadillac Williams or Chris Chambers has a rough day, you still have hope that your other back(s) or receivers can pick up some slack. However, if your quarterback is off _ especially if you get six points per passing TD _ it can leave a sizable void.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme is off to a shaky start this fantasy season, but owners should keep him around at this point.

That’s why Bulger and Plummer are starting to hit the waiver wires, why folks are wondering whether to give up on Delhomme, and why someone in your league is thinking of playing Chad Pennington or Rex Grossman over Brady or Carson Palmer. Grossman and Pennington are suddenly as popular as an ice cream truck in July, and David Carr is gaining notice as well.

Still, we need to chill. Take it from the guy who picked up Carr and Pennington this week in a deep-roster league that starts two quarterbacks to replace Mark Brunell. Donovan McNabb is my other starter.

Grossman looks like gold as the league’s top-rated passer after two weeks, but the four-touchdown dismantling of Detroit masks an average 262-yard, one-TD, one-INT performance in Green Bay. A second straight 300-yard game is making me reconsider my outlook on Pennington, but I still don’t expect him to be much more than a matchup option. This week’s game against Buffalo is not one that propels him into my lineup. Grossman falls into the same category, but you could do worse than him against the Vikings on Sunday. If Grossman does keep playing like he did against the Lions, though, maybe we could see a line of Rex-N-Effect gear (just shake ya rump).

Behind them in the "will you be my new quarterback" lovefest sits Carr, who had great numbers in Indy last week after his defense staked the Colts to an enormous lead. Although we certainly shouldn’t expect three touchdowns from him very often, it’s a wonderful sign that he has completed 75 percent of his passes so far, even though he’s still getting sacked (nine times in two games). I’m running with him against Washington this week, hoping only that he goes mistake-free and connects for a TD or two. Nothing huge. Down the line, he could have good days against Oakland, Cleveland and the Jets, as well as in both meetings with Tennessee. All in all, Carr’s worth having around.

But what about the big-name guys, the ones who are letting us down in the first place? Well, anyone giving up on Brady or Hasselbeck right now, or combing the matchups for another option over Palmer, is doomed to a season of overreaction and mediocrity (at best).

Bulger and Delhomme reside in a lower tier, and it would be OK to bench them until they turn things around as long as you have another truly good option. Delhomme figures to get much better once Steve Smith returns, which could be this week. Bulger still has weapons, but another bad week or two and his success starts to look like a product of the Mike Martz system. Owning him requires insurance.[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Finally, there’s Plummer, who’s looking a lot more like the old Snake than the impostor who was wearing his uniform and being stingy with turnovers last regular season. His shaky play is already getting him cut in some leagues, but I think Denver’s too good a team with too much offensive talent to just give up on the quarterback at this point. Go ahead and stick him on your bench if he becomes available, and don’t go throwing him away just because you think you’re set with Michael Vick and Phillip Rivers.

The most important thing to hang onto is patience. Football has a relatively short season, and the specter of 0-3 with six bye weeks still to come can be scary, but jumping on the hot quarterback can get you burned.

&bodytext;Out on an Island

The Buffalo defense has been pretty impressive so far, especially in fantasy terms, returning to the 2004 form that helped plenty of us to the playoffs that year. However, while the Bills’ D has allowed 23 points so far (the other two were by safety), it also has yielded 4.5 yards per carry to opposing running backs, with New England and Miami gaining more than 4.4 per attempt.

The Jets’ running game has been nothing special. Kevan Barlow and Derrick Blaylock "lead" the way with 25 carries apiece. Barlow, however, has gone for 3.1 a rush to Blaylock’s 1.7, and there are rumors that Barlow’s role will increase. New York’s passing has gotten the exposure (for good reason), but the team will run when not chasing a lead _ as evidenced by its 34 rushes to 33 pass attempts against Tennessee.

It would be foolish to expect a big game from Barlow this week, but as the first bye week takes LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson, Julius Jones and LaMont Jordan out, 20 carries for 60-80 yards and a touchdown would be nice.

Last week: Desmond Clark _ 5 catches, 85 yards, 1 TD.

Matt Schauf writes a weekly fantasy football column for The Daily Star. E-mail him at mschauf63@hotmail.com.