http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/08/06/jake-long-on-dolphins-qb-chad-hennes-ability-i-told-you-so/ I thought this would a good read. What do you think?
I've never been concerned about Henne's ability to handle pressure. I think he struggled early on with pocket awareness and accuracy (that included anticipation and knowing the offense). I think the pocket awareness will come naturally with enough snaps so the only long term concern I had was about his accuracy, although it should improve in part just with experience as well. It was never horrible or anything. It just wasn't elite. I think it's pretty obvious that he'll be at least a 60% guy going forward. If everything else about Henne is at least solid (as it looks to be), that should be enough to make the Dolphins a perennial playoff contender (occasional SB contender) as long as there's enough talent around him. If he can get his accuracy consistently up to the 65% level then the result will be a QB who makes more than enough plays and limits his mistakes, primarily INTs. That would make him a top 10 QB. On this team that would be enough to make Miami a perennial SB contender during his tenure.
yeah i have no doubt that henne will be good enough for us. i thought he would be a good not great QB coming out of college and still think so, though his demeanor makes me think he might even become very good. he will never be peyton manning but he could be on the level of ben roethslisberger and thats good enough to win rings with
That's where I had him evaluated as well, a good, but not great prospect. My evaluation of his potential is higher now, potentially very good, but not elite.
Find it interesting that Sparano praised the improvement on Henne's touch passes without being asked. Just brought it up.
cant access. my club access is going to have to wait another month unfortunately. been a rough summer. any chance you could copy and paste
Sorry guys, didn't realize it was a club thread... If you go back and search the threads leading up to that draft, you'll see a lot of great stuff. There were a number of mocks/rumors that had us getting Long and Henne. People said they wouldnt be pleased
You're very perceptive (as Ricky Williams himself said) but he probably knew he was gonna be asked anyway.
That's good to hear. Bess had brought it up once before as well. I want to see it with my own eyes before I buy in of course, but it's promising.
Just a recap of your lust for Matt Ryan Adamp. Oddly enough...I had nothing to say in that conversation..I can recall watching Henne beating the Gators, and had seen Ryan, but Qb evals were not my cup of tea. Of course I watched the Bill Walsh Qb play series on youtube and now have a basic understanding of what a good Qb looks like.
I remember when there were rumors that we were interested in Flacco, literally 99% of the board was going nuts. Something about Flacco being the classic 'overrated' type of QB. Gotta love the draft
That was your argument back then. I just think it has become obvious that 6'0" tall "midgets" can be pretty darn good, even top 3, QBs.
sure bring that one up when i was attacked on all sides for liking Ryan and had to point out all the flaws of any competitor i see you didnt bring up this review of the draft right after when i had a chance to calm down http://forums.thephins.com/showthread.php?t=7427 2) QB Chad Henne 6’2 7/8” 230 4.96 - Someday we will probably know what the original strategy regarding QB was in this year’s draft. Right now I don’t think we do. Obviously we showed interest in Henne. But what if Flacco was still available? Brohm was probably not in consideration but might have been a fallback position if Henne and Flacco were both gone by the time 32 rolled around. The feeling is that Henne would’ve been the choice at 32 until Merling became available. Then as luck would have it, Henne was still around by the time our second pick in the second round was up. Clearly the football gods were smiling upon Parcells and company day one. Henne is slightly on the short side but is solidly built. He is thick bodied. He is extremely smart and possesses a strong arm that can make every throw. He throws a tight spiral and can get the deep pass out on a rope. He has nice touch and can anticipate routes nicely. He has a quick release. He has shown good leadership qualities and has excellent intangibles as evidenced by being a four year starter for QB machine Michigan. He is tough physically and mentally having played through a separated shoulder. Henne unfortunately doesn’t feel pressure and will probably always take unnecessary sacks. He seems to need a perfect pocket in front of him so that he can step into his throws. Pocket mobility is poor to average and he is not good at improvising on the move when the pocket collapses. His accuracy is inconsistent and he has a tendency to sail the ball on occasion which will lead to unnecessary interceptions in the pros. He takes too long to decide on who to throw too and has a tendency to lock on his receivers. His footwork is poor. A lot of Henne’s flaws can be improved under the tutelage of Dolphins QB Coach David Lee but its probably too much to ask him to start his rookie season. He averaged approximately 200 yds passing pergame with a 60% completion average. 22 TDs and 8 ints over the course of a 13 game season was basically what he produced at Michigan every year approximately. A classic pocket passer in the mold of Drew Bledsoe, Henne landed in a perfect system for him. A run dominated, play action passing attack that will emphasize a huge offensive line will give him a chance to be successful in Miami. I doubt there are more than ten teams on which Henne could be successful but Miami is definitely one of them. The key to his success will be his accuracy. If he can improve his accuracy after a year or two of David Lee’s tutelage he should be able to thrive in this system. Bottom line he is never going to be great but with hard work on his part he could become a poor man’s Bledsoe or Simms Grade B- ( fits the system but how much better is he than McCown and Beck?) Prospects bypassed WR Dexter Jackson, CB Terrell Thomas, TE Martellus Bennett Compares to Kerry Collins, Matt Hasselbeck, John Navarre, Brian Griese i undervalued his mobility a touch
I don't think Henne reaching Bledsoe's level is really that much of a stretch, so "poor man's Bledsoe" is a bit of a slight.
yeah no doubt. from a gm standpoint i would still avoid them as a rule of thumb. i think they bust far more than succeed. i still view 6'4" as ideal and 6'2" as the cut off. I would never draft Drew Brees and would be wrong but I would nver draft john beck and would be right
yeah to a point i guess. but bledsoe is who he reminded me of just shorter. i think the comaparisons i used were poor but overall i think the analysis of his skills was pretty good
I agree with you there Rafael. I actually think Chad Henne could be an elite quarterback. There is no doubt that is a goal of his and we all know he has the potential to be the best. I believe he will be a QB that could take us to the Super Bowl many times.
I dont think being short was John Becks problem lol. I thought he was gonna be real good. Mature, accurate, very smart, and threw an awesome ball. But BOY was I dead wrong! What I had'nt seen was him under pressure. Beck was an even more chicken crap version of AJ Feely when in the pocket. Had no calm in him what-so-ever! Ive never felt so nervous when our offense came on the field as when those 2 had the ball in their hands!
The size of QBs has certainly increased over the years. I still put the cut off as 6'0" though. There are many QBs that are generously listed as 6'2" but really aren't. Using that hard cut off you probably would have also passed on Romo, Rodgers, Garrard, Brunell, Vick, etc. These guys were all in the 6'0" - 6'2" range but have been at times good to very good starters. I think you are using a criteria of minor importance and eliminating some very good QB prospects.
the only one i liked from that group coming out of college was rodgers but i wouldve waited till the 2nd round. you're correct about me passing on the others though.
Beck is a guy I believed in as well. I agree that his height had nothing to do with his success or lack of it. IMO the key was the speed of his decision making, but he showed that ability after a couple of seasons of grooming in college. He's a guy who needed to be groomed. I still believe that if his and Rodgers situations were reversed, their outcomes may have been reversed as well.
I liked Rodgers and I liked Brunell. I didn't like Vick. I didn't evaluate Romo and Garrard. But my likes and dislikes weren't related to their heights. The only superstar QB that I remember missing on was McNabb. I predicted bust on him and was clearly wrong. Alex Smith hasn't done as well as I thought he could but he was another guy whom I said would need grooming. The first rounders over the last 10 years or so that I correctly predicted bust on were, Jamarcus Russel, Losman, Boller, Joey Harrington, and Couch. A couple of later round guys I really liked that went on to success were Warner and Brees (although Brees should have been a 1st rounder).
I really liked Rodgers coming out (over Alex Smith), and was hoping we would take him. Don't get me wrong, I love Ronnie, and I'm not knocking the pick. But, Rodgers has certainly exceeded most/all expectations. GB definitely got a lot of value with that pick. Of course, how good he might have been elsewhere is open to debate.
i liked rodgers (not 1st rd like) because he had agility and an arm and i liked his demeanor. i was willing to make an exception. I didnt like Alex Smith, Jamarcus Russell, Stafford, Sanchez, Bradford, Carr, vince young and McNabb also. I think McNabb is a helluva lot better in the pros than anything i saw of him in college. i liked cutler, kolb (as a project), edwards (as a backup), flacco, ryan, and crompton this year. i would also have taken late round flyers on snead, lefevour, and one or two in 2007. have to go through my lists for older drafts to see who else. the most important thing i look for in qbs is intangibles. thats why even when the guy meets the size criteria if i dont feel comfortable with his smarts i dont like them. alot of it is predicated on where you draft them however. i tend to be very critical of QBs and will fall to the conservative side more often than not. a guy like bradford this year i may be willing to take a flyer on but i would never spend the forst overaqll on a guy who is injury prone and seemingly fragile. could be wrong on him but the risk outweighs the reward IMO. The one thing I will do is once they are drafted I will give them time to develop even guys i didnt like. Its funny in year two I saw some flashes from Jamarcus that i thought i could be wrong on him. that ended abruptly I think alot of QBs could develop if you give them enough time but this game has changed so much that if they dont develop quickly enough you end up developing them for someone else. I could see Alex Smith or David Carr resurrecting their careers someday but I still think they were bad picks edit: aslo hated brady quinn lol. wanted willis (as did everyone nowadys lol even though there were a ahndful of people back then who were pulling for him)but knew we wouldnt draft him and was fine with ginn since we needed the speed. still need the speed but it seems we're going with size over speed at the receiver spot so maybe we can get away with it. would have loved to see if ginn and marshall could have done anything together. dont think this waqs the environment for ginn anymore. the fans and media had turned on him so much that the first drop and the wolves wouldve been out. crabtree and ginn will be interesting though. its his last year to prove himself IMO
Hey Adam, I'll support you. When you were pushing so hard for Matt Ryan instead of Long in 2008, Ryan sure made you look good that season. However on the other side of that coin, I'm still glad we took Long.
My criteria sets some minimum standards for size, arm strength, etc., but once you meet those I prioritize accuracy, decision making and leadership. Then I move to what I consider less important skills like mobility. I do believe that having excellent ability in certain areas can compensate, like having a super quick release or great mobility can create some leeway in other areas. I also didn't care much for Brady Quinn. I didn't hate him or anything, I just thought he was a 2nd round prospect, pretty much in the same risk range as Beck. I also agree that Ginn could have done better opposite Marshall, but that he would never have done well enough to please most fans here. I liked the pick, but I said from the beginning that he would never be a #1 WR.
