My opinion...

I agree that Henne probably will be and should be the guy next year. He should be simply b/c there aren't any better options that aren't prohibitively expensive. I don't know whether he'll ever be the solution, but he has clearly progressed from last season. Only the overly emotional look at just one game or one stat and believe he hasn't developed. In the majority of areas he is head and shoulders better than he was last season. He still isn't good enough, obviously, and he may never be. But when I see clear development in a young QB, especially one that's spent most of the year being handicapped with some atrocious play calling and I don't have any better options, it would be foolish to scrap him for the heck of it.

Going forward, outside of Luck I don't see any "sure thing" type QBs available. I would still look to draft a mid-late round QB that I hope might develop but I would stick with Henne next season and try to add a receiving TE and speed at RB as well as more athletic interior linemen. I would also stick with Sparano and look to improve the OC. My hope would be to be as successful at improving the OC as they were last season improving the DC. Blowing everything up would almost guarantee 3-5 years of rebuilding. Replacing the OC and trying to upgrade some positions other than the QB give us the best chance to win over the next three years.

 

If this regime hasn't gotten in right in 3 years, there is no reason to think anything is going to change over the next 3 years.

Somehow Atlanta has turned themselves into a legitimate SB contender in the same amount of time we are still floundering around mediocrity. And we didn't have a coach walk out mid-season or have a QB go to federal prison after trading our valuable, starter caliber backup.

I'm tired of the excuses. Henne has had 25 starts. I don't know what you expect to see over 10 more that is going to be appreciably different, whether Norv turner or somebody else is the OC.

 

Henne is not inaccurate. Every deep ball is consistantly underthrown. 100%

 

You don't choose who to throw to in Zone defense. You look at the most open man based on the coverage. If the god damned coach can't call a route to exploit it you're ****ed. Against man at least the receivers get to beat DB's, which we saw in the Raiders game. If we can't call routes to exploit Zone, what can the QB do? I think you misunderstand what happens against zone coverage. If the QB can only throw to routes IN the zone, then of course he'll get picked off a lot. The worst throw though was the one with Hartline streaking down field. Again, against a cover two if we run RB swings, TE cross, WR1 flies, and WR2 curls/hooks/comebacks, we'll get picked all day. They need to give him at least one kill call for Cover 2 and Cover 3 if he sees it at the line. Otherwise, not being able to audible out at the line will ALWAYS kill us. If he can't change to routes that will actually work, he's ****ed.

 

I would expect to see continued improvement. Henne developed much more accuracy and got much better at reading defenses over where he was last year. That was despite being handicapped by atrocious play calling most of the season. That doesn't mean he's good enough or even that he will be, but it would be myopic to see that there were areas where he improved. Other than Marshall, there was very little upgrade to the offensive side of the ball. In fact, with Grove's injury there was arguably a step away from the offense they wanted to run. They focused on improving the defense last off-season and they succeeded. I would hope that they would place a similar focus on improving the offense this off-season. I would like to see a new OC and a draft that improved the over-all speed and athleticism on the offensive side of the ball. They focused on the defensive side last season and improved it. It is not unreasonable to believe that they could do something similar to the offensive side this off-season.

 

Play calling has nothing to do with missing open receivers and constantly underthrowing or overthrowing deep patterns.

Yeah, he has improved slightly in some areas. And has gotten worse results.

I don't need to see 250 more passes. Sometimes a guy is what he is.

 

I don't even know how to respond to you.

If a guy is open and the QB overthrows and underthrows him, how exactly was the playcall a problem?

I agree that the playcalling has been bad, but Henne has been bad on his accord to.

 

If only your posts were jokes. An open man is an open man.

And Henne wasn't taken out for the wildcat when he underthrew Hartline and was almost intercepted by Hadden in the end zone on the firsts eries. Or when he underthrew Hartline by ten yards.

 

Looking at the results is the mistake many make when evaluating QBs. That's how you get bad evaluations of QBs like Steve Young and Drew Brees. You have to look at how the QB is developing in the areas he can control.

And I agree that Henne has missed too many passes and made too many bad reads. If you've watched football your whole life, as I assume you have, then you've seen great QBs miss passes and make bad reads. Anybody who watched Peyton over the last three games would admit that. Of course, everybody will give Peyton a pass b/c he's been great for a long time (justifiably, IMO). But Henne hasn't had that so you're jumping to the conclusion that he can't. The fact is that in Henne's brief time starting he has had great games and horrible games. It is myopic to conclude that only the horrible games or the great games define what he is.

 

FWIW, I agree with you. Sanchez has had games where his QBR was less than 10. He flat out lost games for them last year. These things happen when you play a young QB and let him learn on the job. The biggest differences between the Sanchez situation and the Henne situation are:

1. Sanchez has a better team around him (as he did last year), so he can get away with mistakes that Henne cannot. The Jets were able to win last year with Sanchez doing a lot of nothing at times (game manager). Miami can not.
2. The Jets had no viable alternative at QB, basically making it sink or swim with Sanchez.


I am on the fence as to whether Sanchez benefits from better coaching. I hate Schotty. I do think that they need to coach to Henne's strengths and they need to give him a better run game, either through personnel or by play calling/design.

I am no expert, but I have watched more Dolphin football this year than I ever have. I just don't see how you can pull the plug on a guy after what amount to a little over a season and a half. I don't see a problem with bringing in competition, but I wouldn't just flat out replace the guy.

 

Raf, I respect and appreciate your posts.

I will pose to you that what we have seen for most of this year is the norm for Henne. The Raider game was the abberation. I also fail to see these "great games" Henne has played. His best game came more than one year ago against the Jets. He's never been as good since.

He has 4 three INT games, while having zero 3 TD games.

http://www.nfl.com/players/chadhenne/gamelogs?id=HEN507580&season=2009

You can see his game logs here. His norm is 1 TD, 1 INT. That has not improved. His increase in completion percentage, YPA, etc., has not correlated into getting better where it matters most.

 

The Colts never would've given up on Manning after two years because he was borderline great in his second year and led his team to a 13-3 record. You mislead intentionally on Manning every time you bring him up. He was 24TD-15INT in his second year, after going 26TD-28INT in year one, as a rookie, leading the worst team in the elague. And his numbers were still better than Chad Henne. Chad Henne has less TD's and more INT's IN HIS CARREER that Peyton had in year one that you claim was so horrible.

The only one with no credibility here is you. Not only do you respond to posters you don't agree with in a jerky, snarky tone, you either lied about or were too busy to check Manning's stats in the "apology" thread and here.

 

I'm not going to argue with you regarding respect or the tone of posts. I'm willing to converse with you and I will continue to treat you with respect.

Perhaps Manning's skills are eroding. And yes he is throwing to no names. That has nothing to do with Chad Henne. Your point is that Manning struggled and then became good, thus Chad Henne could follow the same path. and while that is technically true, you're overlooking the fact that Peyton Manning was infinitely better in his first year than Chad Henne has ever been.

Even Brees, in his first year starting had a positivie TD to INT ratio and backslid the following year, along with the rest of the team which eld to River's drafting.

So my point is that other QB's who have struggled and then become good were still better than Henne during their struggles.

 

I don't find the raw numbers of TDs and INTs to be predictive of future good or bad QB play without consideration of the context. Before this season, I kept saying that Sanchez had shown many traits that could be built on. Most on the board disagreed and primarily pointed at his INT total as validation of their opinion. Sanchez was given far better support from his OC and better offensive weapons and he has continued to improve. I see the same thing with Henne now except that he hasn't been given the opportunity to throw those INTs and learn from them. That's part of the process that Henne hasn't gone through yet.

 

I agree the context is important. The context of our situation makes Henne's propensity for INT's and overall average play more perplexing.

Peyton Manning threw 28 INT's as a rookie. However, he also threw 26 TD's while starting every game for the worst team in the elague. And I believe he was top 5 in attempts that year. So, therefore, Manning threw alot of INT's in year one because he was a rookie whow as asked to carry a bad team.

The second year, when he got Edge, he went to 24-15 and led his team to a 13-3 record.

Chad Henne came onto a playoff team last year, with a great running game, after having sat for a year ostensibly learning about the NFL. He has a great game off the bat against the Jets and then settled into his basic pattern of 1TD, 1 INT per game. This year, he was given Brandon Marshall. And his numbers actually got worse. I understand part of that is the running game, but he should at least be above average by now if he is ever going to be anything

 

What I think it is, some of these schmoes think they are going to score points with the powers that be on the board, and are looking to get Moderator positions. So the ol' Brown-nose the Dolphins will lead the owners of this site to think they are all Rah-rah and worthy.

Pathetic but most likely the reason.

 

The Hartline miss was it for me. I have zero faith that Henne is the future. It was like an epiphany to me.

 

I hate to say it but he reminds me of A.J.Feeley in that way.Low trajectory on his throws resulting in a lot of batted balls and difficulty in catching his throws for the receivers because of the velocity.And he has the same accuracy problem.

 

Well, I think Henne is better than Feeley but they're not all that different. Feeley was effective in Philly's system but not in any other. Maybe there is a point about Henne being better in another system but you're better off just finding the best player you can

 

The thing with the cover 2 is that most of the time you get man outside, of which, Henne can read. It's whats in the middle and most of all, whats behind that he's having trouble with. Zone defenses kill him and I'm not overly confident he'll ever learn to beat it....

 

If there was a Qb who could utilize him right, that waste of a Wr would be your best friend.

And to add: What would they do with those two 2nd round picks? Get another Qb in the second round like they did Henne? No thanks to developing a Qb for another 2-3 yrs.

 

You kind of do need to go on. Most agree that the offensive coordinator needs to go. All the WC's, and reverses and such may hurt the momentum but missing wide open targets is something a Qb, who has been a Qb all his life, should not do........as often as Henne does.

 

You keep using the TD/INT numbers, but I'm telling you that those don't tend to be predictive of eventual QB success. Those numbers are much more indicative of the offense in general than they are of the QB. And most QBs are not above average in their second season starting so I don't see any basis for your contention that Henne should be above average by now. Henne has been about average for most of the season, about 15th or 16th. He is ranked lower right now after that bad game, but the season has shown us that he'll probably finish about the middle of the pack. This is where most reasonable expectations had him at this point. If you thought he should be a top 10 QB this season then I would say your expectations are unreasonable and that you'll be replacing QBs for the next 30 years before your likely to find a QB that meets those expectations.

 

I hear you on drafting another QB. The funny thing is I was making a point we don't have the resources to do so and you completely missed the boat. As for Marshall we wasted two valuable picks for a big name who has been underwhelming. Regardless of who we would draft with those picks. Your logic has me scratching my head. It reminds me of the Raiders giving up a 1st rounder for Seymour. Who were they going to take with that pick anyways.... Give it away.

 

Who was our number one Wr before they gave up those picks? A former, early, first round draft pick named Tedd Ginn. Oh yeah, and his family.

Marshall is still a young Wr, and one of the best in the entire NFL. Giving up two seconds in two seperate drafts is not bad. That's not head scratching material man. That's called making the team better in an instant. The sad part, and the part that fits with what you're saying is they don't have, or don't seem to have, the Qb that fits his game. Sadly

 

Or acquire a Veteran Qb which is the reasoning behind the Carson Palmer thread.

Henne will have 4 more games, of that I am fairly certain, however unless he strings together 4 great games there will be changes in the offseason, how could there not be changes?