So, where are we???????

Personally, I think following the playoff loss to the Ravens, Parcells and company should have named Henne the 2009 starter.

I think the real question is, how much better would he/we be right now if Henne would have gotten the first string reps beginning with OTA's.

It was pretty obvious we were only going so far with Penny and only continued to go with him because they felt he was owed for last season. Which is nice unless you really want to be a contender sometime in the near future.

 

I think it all depends on how Henne plays. He has the power in his hands right now to keep the QB job away from Penny. Hard to say how i feel about Henne atm, he has only started one game. I already know what we have with Penny. Time will tell. The loss to the Ravens in the playoffs was a Penny loss to me, he threw some bad, bad passes. There were other things not in his hands that happened also.

 

Don't care whether or not Penny loses his job due to injury, it won't matter, his contract is up after this season. Unless Henne completely tanks it, there is little reason to re-sign him.

The Henne era is just too new for any real opinions to be formed, other than those who have already formed an opinion of him prior to him playing... The bottom line is that it's hard to knock Henne because we just don't know yet...

I don't know that we're a better team without Penny, but it looks like his career here may be over if Henne improves...but to worry about it right now is really jumping the gun..lets see how Henne does before we either hang him in effigy or start buying tickets to his HOF enshrinement...

 

Like i said, that depends on Henne's play this season. If he plays well, it will be Penny who? Henne holds the cards for himself being the starter from here on out. If he plays well, Penny will be gone. An injury like this can cost him his job. Question remains is will it? Do I myself think he will lose it? I think it will be close, i am not sold on Henne yet.

 

The Dolphins 2009 edition is at a crossroads of the season 2socks, to be honest about it, I "know" people think that the Jets game is a "must win" but really it is not, there are 11 games to play afterwards.

But as a team, the Jets game will mark Chad Henne's first start against a good defense, it also marks the end of the first portion of the season as we head into a bye week.

On the upside, the Oline and R&R are going good, the Defense seems to have turned the corner, and Smith and Davis are playing at high levels for Rookie Cb's, the downside is Chad Henne is still a young and raw Qb, no Wr has distinguished themselves, and Fasano has regressed so far this season.

Monday against the Jets is not a must win, however it is a need to win simply to allow the three Units, Special Teams, Offense and Defense have yet to play a complete, 60 minute game.

 

It's too early to tell what type of QB Henne is going to be, so if we are talking about what Pennington can do vs what Henne can do (what we know), I would have to say that Pennington gives us a better chance to win. But seeing that he'll be out for the year, we will have plenty of time to see what Henne is capable of. My guess is that his presence will open up the offense and transform us from a dink and dunk to a more balanced passing attack. If he is capable of making smart throws and stretching the field with his arm, then I think he is a better fit at QB with the talent that we have surrounding him.

 

Actually L2G, a good comparison between what Chad Henne can do for us vs what Tyler Thigpen can do for us is probably a better comparison for this season.

When a player is seriously injured, they are like Ghosts, they have no bearing on any decision made while they are not available.

Which brings up another great question, Matt Roth, in two weeks he is eligible to play this season, while not as abstract as "wither Pennington?", what is decided about Roth going forward will have a huge impact on the Dolphins.

 

I care about winning games, if we are a better team with Henne then so be it. That doesn't mean i dont care about Penny, what he helped us do was great. But us letting him walk at the end of the season will probably be the best thing for him, they will offer him a chance to stay as a backup. I don't think he will want that though. We do care, don't take it as we don't. The best player will play, if thats Penny, then so be it, if its Henne, then so be that.

 

Imho you got it all wrong 2 socks, 90% of phinfans have positive views of Penny for what he did for us in 08, however he is no factor to play this season, discussing "what about Pennington" at this point in time is a bit like discussing David Martin's role for us, which is to say, there is no role for them out on the field this season.

With Penny's history, there is nothing to be done except wait for him to rehab and then make a decision sometime this winter about him.

 

Penny was "done", following the loss to the Ravens, or for us should have been.

That was the day "Pennington gives us the best chance to win", no longer had any truth to it.

Regardless of whether he was injured or not, starting Henne vs the Bills would have been the smart choice.

Checking down on 80% of passing plays, scores very few points...

 

Well, he is on IR, so that kind of answers a lot of your questions. And his contract is up after this year, so he won't necessarily be losing his job to injury. There just isn't much of a situation because of these factors. We all love Penny for what he did for us in 08'. But we also knew that Henne was our future, and I don't think the plan was to throw him into a qb controversy is his 3rd or 4th season. It was for him to gain experience, and work him into being the starter when the time was right. And that time happened 2 weeks ago.

I hope we resign Pennington, because he is an asset to our team on many levels. But this should be Henne's team for good. (if he IS the qb we all hope he can be)

 

Well then maybe you missed those throws to the flat last week.....for the first time in a while, it didn't appear as tho our QB was playing lawn darts.

 

We do have a guy on the roster who passed for 3500 yards in the NFL, and more TDs than INTs last year.

We have plenty of potential at the QB spot. We don't have to go there next year, especially not high (doesn't mean we won't).

 

Kansas City (Originally drafted by Minnesota, but was claimed off waivers when they tried to put him on their PS).

 

i think we're all kind of hoping for "mediocre" to be honest. its a complicated situation with Henne and White back there, and the fact we invested two 2nd round picks in them. i think with those guys, and as Stitches mentioned, a very promising young qb in Thigpen, and we can't really go there in next years draft unless the qb play is really dreadful, and a homerun falls into our laps.

 

I don't think that you can draw any comparisons to how the receivers played under Henne to how they played under Pennington, after ONE start by Henne, that one start being his first NFL start. Although, I would say that if Tje receivers play the same under Henne, then why go back to Pennington? If a first time starter can do what a veteran does, why not stick with the guy with the stronger arm? Let's see how our receivers are by the end of the year, specifically Ginn. Don't fool yourself, though, Pennington wasn't going to magically start going deep if we had someine like Andre Johnson on our team.
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It's not that I don't give a sh*t about Penny. I absolutely love the guy and what he brought to this team.

With that being said, I don't think he was the long term solution. There had to come a time when Henne got his shot. I do hate that Penny had to get hurt for that to happen. He is a great guy and I wish him the best.

 

at the end of the day Penny was a game manager QB, a good one but still limiting. You need a playmaker QB. Henne has a chance to be one though Parcells will probably try to turn him into Phil Simms.

If you dont think Henne is already paying dividends I quote you the following from Bart Scott from a radio show. It comes from a JETS board and is only a recap of what was said.


Bart Scott- "If Pennington was in, it'd be easier"

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On his "Barking with Bart" show on nyj.com, Scott was asked about the upcoming Dolphins game. Eric Allen asked what he thought of the 'wildcat', and Bart said that he calls it something else. When asked what he called it, he replied, "that's not for tv, I gotta think of the young fans out there, I don't want them to know I even think like that."

Then, unprompted, he said that things are a little different with Henne in the game. He said that Pennington's inability to throw the long ball made it very easy to defend Miami. With Henne in, they would have to watch how closely they play the safeties to the line.

Poor Chad....

http://www.jetsinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201600

 

There are a lot of people here who love what Penny helped us with myself included.

With that said he's now on IR so no matter how much he may want to come back or we may want him to come back he can't. He's done for the year. If he comes back it would be next year, and with the signing of Thigpen that's looking very unlikely.

As far as your other questions I don't really know. I don't watch or scout CF so I can't tell you what I think about Henne being the long term solution or the "better" solution, but I can tell you that I have heard a lot of positives and a few negatives about him, and what I've seen has me excited save for the "holding onto the ball for too long" which hopefully gets corrected over time.

I guess time will tell.

 

I can't imagine any receiver choosing Pennington over Cutler. Cutler can make every throw and Pennington can't. If I was a receiver I would want a QB who could get me the ball in every situation.

 

What were you doing at a Jets board adamp? Did you feel like you had some extra IQ points to burn and nothing better to burn them on?

As for what B Scott has to say, whatever, why would he tell the truth, and why would a 1 game starter be harder to defend than a 10yr starter?

They wouldn't be, not logically.

Poor Chad? He won 11 games last season, Henne has won 1, I wouldn't take what Scott has to say to heart, I know you are Henne's Agent and stuff, but let's not clear space on the ring of honor quite yet my man...

 

BTW, as for "where are we?????????"

Well, strategically speaking, our ST units still need better performances from the kick returners, we have some Wr to sort through, Donald Thomas performance in his first full season has been disappointing to me, could be the chest injury, could be just his learning curve, but he is not the player I thought he was going to be.

On the Defense, things are improving, we are no longer allowing track meets in our secondary but the Matt Roth decision is huge, playing Roth over JT changes the complexion of our Defense against the run and against the pass.

And the rookie Cb rotation will eventually have to be settled, and the Gerbil has steadied himself after his first two game disasterous play, Soliai is finally showing some things and Crowder remains...Crowder...

On Offense the Oline needs more work on blitz recognition and blocking assignments, and finally...Jake Grove has earned his paycheck so far, he clearly is an upgrade over Samson Satele.

So:

1. Is Ginn going to return kicks?
2. Is Henne going to improve over the course of the season.
3. What is Matt Roth's role? Does he have a role with the Dolphins this year?
4. Which Wr will step up, Hartline, Camarillo, Pat Turner, Ted Ginn?

4 huge questions heading into Game #5, 3 are production questions, one is a Strategy question, the production questions are troubling this late in the season.

 

I think all he said was it was easier to defend against Penny. Look at the last sentence. "They have to be careful how close the safeties play to the line" Its what we've been saying all along. Defenses cheat up when Penny plays. Henne forces them to play us more honestly. Henne = better running game and eventually better passing game

 

One's that get that there in time to do more with it....better chance of YAC.

I know Penny is a fan favorite for the way he helped us get things turned around. But he's done what he was brought in here to do. It was at the point where he was mostly just in the way of progress.....we're very fortunate right now to be moving forward and getting a good evaluation of Henne. And I see no situation in the future where Pennington being under center again would be a good thing for the Miami Dolphins.

However, don't think that Penny's contributions to this team ended with his injury.He's always appeared to have a genuine interest in the development of Henne.

Getting Henne out there with Pennington still on the roster, isn't something to be over-looked. Personally, I think at this point Penny helps us more on the sideline as Henne's mentor.

 

The Jets would smother Pennington.....too much pass rush combined with solid coverage. Which is when Penny really gets exposed. Penny just didn't have the velocity to keep a good defense from shrinking the field.

I'm sure Bart Scott and Jests would rather see Penny and I'm also sure that they're glad that Henne has only started one game instead of all 4, like IMO, he should have.

All things considered, I think it's hard to argue that we wouldn't be better off right now. Even if Henne would have been no better than 1-3, he'd be more experienced heading into what is a pretty huge game for us.

 

Just responding to the stated question padre

Noone is asking Henne to be a slinger, he can be a very efficient passer and still throw the ball deep, something we didn't have with Pennington. Pennington didn't choose to be a dink and dunk QB, his body (more specifically, his shoulder) has taken a beating over his career and he's a dink and dunk QB out of necessity. His coaches understand this and shorten the distance of the passing plays in the playbook. He's efficient because he doesn't throw the ball out of his comfort zone, which is far shorter than most QB's.

All I want to see out of Henne is for him to take advantage of his arm strength and Ginn's speed a couple times a game, it doesn't have to be a 70 yard bomb, just seeing him throw the ball with zip and giving our WR's time to catch it and turn around for YAC would be enough for me. With Pennington, our WR would have to wait an extra second or two for the ball to get to them, that gave the defense a second or two to react to the ball in the air and less time for our receivers to turn that pass into extra yards. I don't expect that trend to continue with Henne behind C.