I am tired of hearing Henne apologists say give excuses for his overall average play. Henne is not a bad QB, but he has been unremarkable. He seems to have the physical tools to be an excellent QB, but I have to question his decision making. We can say henning handcuffs henne or is henne handcuffing hennings ability to call the plays he wants. Henne to me appears to play scared, stares down the WR and checks down quick. Tries to play it safe, whether that is the player or the plays I don't know. Lets look at the QBs drafted in the first 2 rounds over the last 3 years. MY ranking (which QBs I would rather have in order): Flacco Ryan Stafford Freeman Brandford Sanchez Henne Clausen Tebow Brian Brohm (is he still in the NFL?) Pat White (ouch) I can give the stats this year but basically Ryan 12th Flacco 14th Freeman 17th Sanchez 23rd Henne 24th (but he is fourth in INT) Lets look at the real young franchise QBs: Rivers Romo Eli Manning Big Ben Aaron Rodgers Their third year pro stats (not third year starting or thier 14th game or whatever made up stat we want to skew the data with) Rivers: 62% 22 TD 9 INT rating 92 Romo: didn't play until his 4th year and had rating 95 (basically his average for the 5 years he has started) Eli: 58% 24 td 18 int 77 rating Rodgers: only 2 games: 71% 1 TD 0 int 106 rating (20/28 218 yards) Big Ben: 60% 18 TD, 23 INT 75 ranking ( but his first year 66% rating 98 and his second year 63% and rating 98) I am not seeing a young QB improve, but one continue to make nonaggresive plays and seem hesitant. So is he our future or does he need more "time".
Good post. I deleted the parts that I'm not specifically responding to.... It was said, I believe in the scouting report, that Ryan would need less grooming out of the gate but that Flacco would have a higher ceiling. Some believe that Ryan has just about hit his ceiling and Flacco will continue to progress. Stafford. Man he gets hurt a lot! lol seems soft to me. Could be out for the rest of the season again. On the bolded portion, some or even all of that could be due to coaching (quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator). Of course, coaching can only go so far, the rest is up to the player...
I think a lot of the passive play and looking hesitant has to do with the coaching staff constantly drilling into his head not to make a mistake. And not ever opening up the playbook, and forcing him to throw when the defense knows he absolutely has to pass.
Let me ask you when the last time you said to yourself "Man, what an amazing throw/play by Henne!". Kid's a backup so far and in this league it's awfully tough to get back and be successful (Jim Plunkett, Rich Gannon, Chad Pennington...I can't think of any others). He'll get his chance when Penny inevitably gets injured.