Well, I wonder if this is just smoke so othres don't think we're going after a QB in the draft?

 

Ireland also thought the world of Gibril Wilson after his wretched 2009 season. Wilson was subsequently released several weeks later. C'mon folks, what is he supposed to say? Henne sucks? Granted, Chad Henne does blow more than hooker in a hotel full of sailors. However, it's in Jeff interests to keep those thoughts to himself.

 

No way to know until the season starts. This regime doesn't crap on it's players publicly. We'll never know what they're thinking until it's done.

 

True, but unlike Wilson, Henne MIGHT be salvageable in some capacity.

 

god i'm getting so tired of that term "creative" what does that even mean. there was one creative offensive coordinator in the entire league last year, josh mcdaniels, and how did he do? is "creative" just a euphimism for passing? why not just say passing instead of creative? and more "aggressive". meaning we will be passing more right? why not just say that since i dont think they mean we will be more creative in the running game or running more aggressively

 

Even that's questionable. Henne played some pretty bad football this season. A lot of those picks he threw were just flat out boneheaded plays.

 

Oh, I can't argue. I was a BIG Henne fan till I saw the Browns game in person (after also seeing him pretty much suck up in Buffalo earlier in the year in person). That Browns game showed me how bad he was missing wide open receivers, or even ignoring open receivers for possible big plays.

BUT, he's got that arm, and you can't discount Henning's messing with his head. Just saying, there's talent there that can possibly be harnessed by the right coach. Good luck new OC and QB coach!!

 

Yes chad Henne has made some pretty damn horrible descisions, but we don't know how much the old offensive scheme and coaches had an impact. X-poc you say he was bad at some times, So does that must mean he will always be bad? I don't think that is true. I think he has the ABILITY to change, will he do it, that is still up in the air. I think if they play to his strength's and scale up the mid range throws he could be a damn good qb. Beef up that o-line, get some speed, be aggressive, and i think this kid can be our man. But until week one its all speculation.

 

Those are some mighty big words from Irish.

They're more than just the normal lip service stuff like: "Henne showed us some potential the past 2 years; now let's see if he can take the next step in 2011 b/c right now he's still our guy."

 

After the crap Henne went through last year with a decimated Oline, practice squad receivers becoming his 3rd & 4th targets, no #2 pass catching TE, no reliable ground game, and a now-fired OC..... he deserves a chance show what he can do after the above problems have been addressed. The kid's earned it IMO.

PS: It's about damn time they finally build an offense and philosophy around our starting QB.

 

What I wonder is how this fan base would take Henne starting the season! I'm fine w/ it as long as we invest our #1 in the future (i.e. Locker). We have to have a plan in place for down the line, and then hope Henne develops and we have something to trade in two years. I will not accept it if Henne is the only option (i.e., we draft a guy in the sixth as a flyer, and re-sign Thigpen or something).

We need to have a back-up/future plan in place as well!

 

Aggressive Tendencies? Really? Because I haven't seen any of that from Henne in a long time.

 

That's exactly it. He seemed very neutered in 2010, when I thought he was very aggressive in 2009. What happened! The thing is, if it's Henning, let him rot in sports hell. And hopefully, if that was the case, let's hope the new offensive staff brings back the aggressiveness he had his first year as starter. At this point last year, I was really excited about the guy!

 

These guys had Henne figured out a long time ago.

[video=youtube;n8bzZEtOcb8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8bzZEtOcb8[/video]

 

That was years ago, tbh.

Look at the strides he's made since then...


































:sidelol:

 

[video=youtube;TERnwoqnmLk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TERnwoqnmLk[/video]

 

by that definition dan henning was creative and he was sent on his way so i dont think thats what ross and ireland mean by creative. hell every coach is creative by that definition and if everyone is doing it it aint being creative. if i had to bet by what they mean by being "creative" its just getting into more three and four wide spread formations. I just think this "creative" speech is a euphimism for spread offense. the spread has been around for so long its rather hard to call it creative.which is why i just say be honest and call it what it is mr ireland. you want to go spread more often. lets not pretend its creative

 

he adjusted it constantly and none of it worked because he lacked an offensive line that could run block and a QB who could throw consistently. If you didnt see Henning adjust in game and week to week then you werent watching

 

Really?

I still saw 3rd & Long play-action, runs during 2-minute drills, DESIGNED short passes during 2-minute drills, screen passes that NEVER work, wildcat. Where was the adjustment? I saw all these things all game long.

 

This has to be it. Don't totally destroy your relationship with your QB until you have a better option.

 

you saw screen passes all game long? you saw the wildcat all game long? you saw two minute drills all game long?

how about the first jets game when he decided to make marshall the focal point of the passing game after not using him that much the week prior. thats an adjustment week to week. i can give you an in game adjustment that most people hated. we ran the ball in the first half against the ravens and went to the pass in the 2nd half. thats an in game adjustment. most of his adjustments were more subtle. he would find a DB that was weak in the first half and target him in the 2nd half. he did that almost every game

i mean even the wildcat. do you know how much we ran that last year when it was working? compare it to this year when our oline couldnt run block to save its life. i dont know the stats but i bet we ran it less than half the times we did last year

 

I'd hate to say it, but I think you could be right in their thinking: that creative = spreading em out more often. Hopefully that will involve more diversity in pass routes and more routes heading up field for extra YAC potential (and a personnel upgrade to allow us to do so). I'm also hoping "creativity" equals more diversity in the ground game than what we've been seeing. I agree with you though about what you're implying: that "creativity" is a subjective term and it can mean something entirely different from team to team.

However, I also agree with Coral's post, too, though.

 

I had that sandwich in your avatar one time. Never again.

 

Agree 100% with you on all aspects.
I'm not a fan of any QB outside of Gabbert either but w/o having a 2nd round pick, I'd rather address Oline, the ground game, & offensive playmakers and see what Henne and a new OC can do with them. We need this aspect of the game upgraded regardless, so personally I'd rather have them in place BEFORE we "hypothetically" bring in another QB so that he has an established offense to aid his development rather than providing them a year later which can make life for a rookie QB more difficult (which I'm hugely against).

The other thing I consider is the time we've invested in Henne so far, which is too much IMO just to hastily throw it away.
I have a hard time fathoming this team giving up on a still-developing QB after a common sophomore slump season when he's flashed some quality potential...... especially when he's yet to have a 2nd offseason to address his sophomore deficiencies (like zone coverage and looking off safeties.... all the normal things many 3rd year QBs face).
Matt Ryan had a disappointing sophomore season and made huge strides during the offseason, and now he's emerged as the real deal..... but even Ryan showed in the playoffs that he STILL needs 1 more offseason to put it all together. 3 years starting and Ryan still isn't ready (not to mention Matt spent 5 years at Boston College compared to Henne's 4 at Michigan.... and Flacco was a 5th year senior, too. So to put things into perspective, these two guys virtually have 2 more years on Henne).

Freeman is the one who impresses me coming out as a true Junior and doing what he has in just his 2nd year...... but I don't see anyone in this draft with Freeman's combination of brains, maturity, leadership, talent, arm, size, ability, and potential (at least not displaying it by their 2nd year). Gabbert comes the closest IMO, but he has more work to do than Freeman did coming out.

 

I think in this context creative means unpredictable, something your boy Dan Henning was NOT.

 

This has to be a smoke screen ,NO way you just stick with him and dont look at what is out there in talent.

Unless you you dont like your job and looking to get the BOOT!

 

i think he is comparing what we saw in '09 vs '10 .... and without a doubt '10 was a direct result of an offseason of becoming CP2, this coaching staff, threats, personnel, and play calling.

IF he shows nothing this year .... then offer the house for Brees when he is a free agent next year.

This year lets get some playmakers, so a veteran QB might actually want to come here if need be in '12. I'll pass on McNabb or Young this year.

 

Umm Cam Newton?

 

he was as unpredictable as any coordinator. in fact that was the main gripe with the guy that he would get too cute and outthink himself. there's nothing unpredictable about the steelers, jets, patriots, colts, packers, etc....honestly the only coordinator/coach that was truly unpredictable was mcdaniels down in denver and he was just all over the place.

 

Cam Newton has the brains, maturity, and skill set that Freeman had coming out? Respectfully, if you believe that then I'd love to sell you a shoe box for $10,000 that "might" contain the Hope Diamond. lol

I'll put $100 out there for any takers that Cam is nowhere close to Freeman by Cam's 2nd year.

 

I agree with most of that, but you also have to realize that if we're banking on Henne we're rolling the dice. Even if we were to pick up another QB elsewhere (FA, Draft, etc) one of them can always become trade bait, and we can recoup draft picks. But if Henne fails this year, we're another year behind in the QB search, and will likely need to wait an additional year if we go to the draft while the new guy goes through his rookie growing pains.

Point being, there is no reason to bank everything on Henne, and nothing to suggest it would be in the long term interest of the franchise. It may work out, I'm still hopeful, but I think not looking at him as being just as responsible as the rest of the offense is being a bit delusional (no offense).

 

The only time Old Man was unpredictable was on 3rd and long when he went play action, and even that became predictable after a while. Or at the end of the Buffalo game when went base package-I formation with 41 seconds to go and no time outs. No way the defense was expecting that :no:.

 

ehh i heard the same stuff all year long and yet anytime people tried to predict his plays in the gamethreads they were almost always wrong

 

I agree with you and I have absolutely zero problem bringing in a vet to push Henne.

I also think many of us are overlooking Brandstater's potential. He came from a great organization in Indy and he made a strong push to be their backup QB IIRC. If the Colts keep 3 QBs then we never end up with the guy.

 

I agree 100%. Casual fans, aka people who know next to nothing about the game, will expectedly struggle to predict play calls. But I can assure you, that's TOTALLY irrelavant to what's happening on the field. Between the lines, opposing defenses had excellent reads on what we were trying to do and how we were trying to do it. Several opposing teams' players alluded to as much, on the record no less. I know you have a Jones for Dan Henning, but its getting pretty ridiculous that you continue to defend him at this point. Not only was he immediately replaced, but the fact that he wasnt coming back was leaked to the press (by the anti-media Dolphins) well before the end of the season. Which prompted some extremely candid comments from Henning towards the end of the year, the guy knew he wasn't coming back.

The GM is now on record saying that he'd like to see an offense built around Henne's strengths. Cynics will say that he's smoke screening Gibril Wilson style, and that may well be the case. But Ireland had no problem telegraphing his desire to add speed and playmaking ability at the skill positions, which suggests perhaps he was being more candid than usual. Time will tell. But clearly the team wasn't satisfied with Henning's performance, your insistence on defending him is baffling.