And so it begins: Henne

Leave Henne be. Look at how Rodgers handled a few years on the bench under Favre. Look at what he's doing now.

Pennington is just as smart as Favre and Mangini even said that he'd be a great coach someday. It'd be a perfect base for the future to let him learn rather than throw him to the wolves.

 

If eliminated from playoffs mathematically, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Henne get playing time. At the same time, I think that the coaches might view Pennington as a longer term QB than just this season. If that's the case I don't know if they'll bench him when it gets to that point.

Basically I'm agreeing with you, but I have a hunch that the only way Henne sees playing time is if Pennington gets injured.

 

oh i agree but i think our pick is going to be determined somewhat by who is available. If the OLBs are gone and Vontae Davis is still available I could see us drafting him

 

Absolutely Adam but what are the chances that Vontae Davis is still there? Slim in my opinion. I'm thinking we'll be having the eighth or ninth pick this year. I could see Selvie slipping to us if he can get past Detroit but I'm expecting Detroit to go OL or Maualuga.

 

I think we have another minirun for OTs. After that Davis will definitely be in the mix but who knows, someone always slips a bit

 

Meh.... this article is just your usual sports journalist stirring something up simply to write a story while ignoring that the majority of the facts support something contrary to his pot stirring story line.

Pennington, even with the weaknesses, is a good QB and deserves to be starting. This coming from a fan that will never forget he's really a Jet and would LOVE for another QB to step in and take the job from him.

 

I thought for sure that the original article you posted would in fact be from Armando. Never fear, if he's not first, he'll make sure to get in on the garbage soon to follow!

 

Run for an OT in the first round? IMO, only if Carey is a goner.

 

It's not about the QB rating. It's about coming through in key situations. Pennington didn't do that on Sunday. He threw a TD pass to Camarillo that was dropped but other than that he wasn't very good. He went 3 for 6 on 3rd downs and and 1 for 5 in the redzone.

Overall game stats are misleading sometimes.

The defense made their fair share of mistakes too. No doubt. However, the pick six by Pennington accounted for 7 points. That means our defense held the Ravens to 20 points. Not great but not awful either.

Our secondary is definitely one of the weakest links on our team. Much more so than Pennington or just about anything else.

 

Should lay some blame on piss poor blocking and the lack of a running game. no way you can blame chad for this loss.

it was a team loss

 

That play was a real head-scratcher for sure. Before the snap Will Allen lined up opposite of Mason. It seemed like he let the WR go thinking the safety would pick him up. Renaldo Hill was the safety and he never got close to Mason.

Maybe Will Allen was supposed to stick on the WR the whole way. I don't know whose fault it was but Mason was wide open and it was an easy six for the Ravens. Just bad all the way around right down to the coaching.

 

Why bench Chad? He is a great QB, and better than i thought would be for us. IMO the best things to happen to us is Favre going to the Jets, gives Henne someone good to learn from...Dont rush him

 

From an OSU fan no less.

Honestly, if Henne hasn't fixed his stare downs of WR's, sub-par release, and questionable decision making, I don't think he should be out there. At the least, if Pennington goes down, Beck would likely get a nod due to his experience and frankly, nothing to lose there. But until then, there should be no reason to bench a QB with a 97.4 QB rating (unless your nickname is Chucky), a 232 ypg average, and a 2 to 1 TD to Int ratio.

 

If we had some secondary players that can catch the ball...

Houston's Matt Shaub and Flaco would have an INT or two added to their stats... as well as a loses over the last 2 weeks...

Ohhh the days of Sam, Pat, Walker, Marion...

 

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to blame Pennington for the loss. You must have missed some of my other posts where I called out the defense and some of the other guys on offense. I'm not saying Henne should get the start either. There's a real good chance Pennington will bounce back against the Bills.

However, I do think Pennington played very poorly. He definitely contributed to the loss.

 

If we are out of the playoffs Henne needs to start the last 2-3 games.

He needs game time experience. He is the one we will look to in the future. It would help him compete for the starting job next year. Even if he doesn't start next year he at least has the experience which he can use if Pennington gets hurt.

Henne has the strong arm that can open up the field. As Joe Rose said on radio "everyone plays on this large field but the Dolphins play on this small field." That's because Pennington has major limitations. can't throw the out. If he throws to the outside, it's a over the shoulder quick throw ala to Ginn against the Ravens. Ask Pennington to throw an out with a lead? Forget about it. Not only is the field narrow for us it's also short. He can't throw deep and this doesn't open up our running game. Defenses continuously put 8 men in the box. We have our hands cuffed with Pennington. He's an excellent QB when it comes to short spaces and efficiency but we need our offense to be more explosive. We need to hold the ball and win the time of possession. We need to convert third downs. Not sure about now but after the Houston game we hadn't convert over 3rd and 6! His arm even looks like it's getting tired as the season wears on.

I think the Beck situation was different last year. Beck had pressure to win the first game of the season and crumbled. Henne will not have that pressure. He has played in 100,000 pack stadiums in Michigan. He has a level head, poised, smart, tough and calm under duress. I have complete confidence that Henne can succeed if he was thrown in there. Heck, if Pennington was not released by the Jets, Henne would have been starting week 1 anyway. So we are already relatively holding back his progress.

 

No doubt. I understand all the support for Pennington but it's becoming more and more obvious that he's not targeting any WR who is beyond twenty yards. Just look at his first ten completions. They went for 4, 7, 17, 11, 5, 28, 14, 27, 21, 8, and 7 yards. He is not taking shots downfield.

It's also very possible that the lack of a vertical threat allowed the Ravens to play the run more effectively.

However, I can't put all the blame on Pennington. I wonder what the coaches are telling him.

 

Having an arm is one thing. Having enough time to use that arm is another especially with a QB noted for sub-par releases, holding onto the ball too long, and hard stare-downs of WR's. Pennington barely had time to make the quick short throws as it is. As for smart, tough, and calm under duress, I'm not so sure he exhibited a lot of those in college. The 2007 Ohio State and Oregon games are really ringing a lot in my mind. He'll make boneheaded throws under duress. And people are really discounting Pennington's arm. It's not Ryan Leaf powerful but he can hit 30-40 yard passes if given time and a WR open.

 

You forgot, he was hurt in those games. Oregon - hurt his leg early in the game and was still trying to play hurt. Ohio State - was hurt the game prior. He had an injury to his throwing shoulder. Was injected with a pain killer before the kick off in the Ohio State game that accidently hit a nerve in that throwing shoulder. He still played on. It wrecked his performance. His college career as whole though was quite exceptional i believe and he showed a lot of the qualities i mentioned.

 

He was called for after Arizona game.
He came out, completed 17 out of 20 and everybody shouted their mouths.
Same thing will happen again vs Fluffalo.

 

Still exhibited a lot of those bad tendencies like boneheaded decision making and taking too long with the ball. Those two kill any rookie QB's performances in the pros. He reminds me a lot of Brad Johnson and everyone saw what his immobility did against the lowly Rams.

 

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. If Henne isn't the answer wouldn't it be better to find out sooner rather than later?

 

Brad Johnson? I think he may be a tad more mobile than Johnson and I think he has a much better arm than Johnson. Johnson was 'Mr. Checkdown' for years.

 

If the rams beat the cowboys can you really call them the "lowly" rams? I don't think so.

 

The Cowboys are a very overrated team. They're average on defense and struggle to protect on offense and are inconsistent when it comes to run/pass.

 

Did u see Henne as a freshman against Texas in the Rose Bowl? nothing short of brilliant.

I assure you, he is no Brad Johnson. I didn't see too many bad decisions Henne made and yes he did hold the ball a bit long but Sparano corrected that in training camp.

 

I'll agree with you there. Do you think the rams are under rated?

Surely one would think the cowboys have the talent to beat the rams... although with the rams beating Washington and now Dallas I really suppose it's all about when you play a team not who you're playing. The rams were hungry to show the league that they can play with talanted teams.

 

I think the Rams are a bad team to be honest. They struggle on both sides of the ball but Haslett has gotten them playing with heart which is something Linehan didn't and its paying off so far. Dallas lost that game because they can't stop any type of play laterally, which has been a weakness for them all year, they don't play well in the secondary at all and because they can't keep their QB off his behind. The Rams blitzed heavily against the Cowboys and that completely threw their offensive flow off. I thought the long run by Steven Jackson on the stretch to the right was a perfect play against Dallas' defense.

I thought that Dallas should have shelled out all those draft picks on a guy like Nmadi Asoughma of the Raiders, not on Roy Williams.

 

I don't know...that is not Tunalands style (to start rookie or even younger QBs) when they have a veteran... We lost the last two games but were in both until end of and mid 4th quarter respectively. Too early to think that CP is our 'downfall'. He did have a poor outing this week though, despite the stats...

 

Yup, there is every likelihood Henne will be starting next year. If we keep losing, sooner than that.

 

Three of his first ten were over 20 yards, and six of his first ten were over 10 yards?
Those are high numbers, not low numbers.

It seems like a lot of fans think long pass plays are commonplace in the NFL. They're not.

 

OK, following up on my last post. I looked up the play by play for the SD-Buffalo game. I picked that game because Rivers is the top rated QB in the NFL and is second (to Drew Brees) in the NFL in 20+ yard completions and 40+ yard completions. Here are the first ten completions by both QBs in that game.

Edwards: 20, 9, 14, -3, 10, 20, 9, 6, 1, 10

Rivers: 12, 2, 5, 5, 8, 23, 9, 15, 4, 14

So, Edwards and Rivers put together had as many completions over 20 yards -- three -- as Pennington had by himself. Edwards had five completions of 10 or more yards. Rivers had four. Pennington had six.

Edwards' first ten completions went for 96 yards. Rivers, for 97 yards. Pennington, 142 yards.

 

I think there's some truth to the idea that long pass plays are not as commonplace we might think. Highlights are filled with them but games are not. However, you also have to consider long pass plays that are incomplete. Sometimes it's just the threat of a bomb that keeps defenses honest.

Those numbers by Pennington clearly indicate that he is completing passes inside of 20 yards. Keep in mind that a 27 yard pass play does not mean Pennington threw the ball that far. Most likely he connected on a 15 yard route where the receiver gained an additional 10 yards or so.

When we talk about stretching the field we're talking about attempts of 40+ yards. Even if they're incomplete.

 

Very good.

However, I didn't see that game. Did Rivers or Edwards take a shot downfield? I would be very surprised if they didn't. Last week Rivers hit Jackson for a 59 yard TD and Floyd for a 49 yard TD. In Buffalo's last game Losman hit Evans for an 87 yard TD. If Rivers or Edwards threw a bomb that wasn't caught it would show up as an incompletion on the stat sheet but in the game it would stretch the field.

I did watch our game and I know Pennington never attempted a bomb. I don't think has attempted one yet this season. Not one of our receivers has a completion for 40+ yards.

 

Well, with respect, what's true of Pennington is true of everyone else. If Pennington's 27-yarder was a 15-yard completion and a 12-yard run, then it is just as likely that Edwards' 20-yard completions were 8-yard throws followed by 12-yard runs. Bills' and Chargers' receivers do not fall down immediately upon catching the ball any more than Dolphins receivers do. In fact I would guess that the Charger and Bill wideouts are more capable of YAC than Dolphin wideouts are. Without either charting the passes or finding a play-by-play that gives YAC, all we can say for certain is that Pennington got a lot more yards on his first ten completions than either Edwards or Rivers got on theirs.

Re stretching the defense, I've never understood why overthrowing a WR by 10 yards 40 yards down the field stretches a defense. The cornerback has to run after the receiver, sure. But why does that stretch the defense more than hitting a bunch of 15-25 yard pass plays does?

Re completions over 40 yards -- by anyone -- again, they are very rare. (And that's not 40 yards in the air, that's 40 or more yards gain, by screen pass, long bomb, whatever.) Brees has 10, less than 1 and a half per game. Rivers has 9. Romo and Rodgers are the only other players who average one per game.