Ireland comments on Henne's "future" as a Dolphin

I honestly dont see the point in adding some random vet QB. Especially given whats available. Those resources are better spent fixing our running game and adding speed and playmakers outside. Kyle Orton, Young, Palmer, McNabb, whoever, they aren't taking us anywhere. You'd be hard pressed to make an argument that their any better than Henne. Most likely, adding one of those guys will only fuel controversy. Every time Henne throws an INC the fans and media will be calling for him to be benched. Again. IMO we go all in with Henne, or we draft a young QB who we think can be a long term replacement. Acquiring some retread from another team, meh.

 

Sorry.... I meant a vet who would be the definitive backup who could be a serviceable starter should Henne go down.

 

i agree that teams knew what our tendencies were. my point however is that they also knew the tendencies of the other 31 teams and the argument that we are going to be "unpredictable" is thereby a false one. Maybe for 2011 since Daboll will be calling the plays and if he calls plays that are different from his time in Cleveland, coordinators will be caught off guard. But by 2012 they will have a book on him just like every other coordinator.

you know what one of the most predicatble offenses in the NFL is...the Colts. They have been running the same plays for five years or so. Everyone knows what's coming. They were far more predictable then we were and yet their offense was able to outproduce us because of execution. Being "unpredictable" is a false notion when it comes to success. I will say it again. Out of 32 teams the only team that ran a truly "unpredictable" offense were the Broncos. The other 31 teams were all highly predictable for the most part. The Packers and Steelers, this year's Super Bowl teams... very predictable. When you're four or five wide it doesnt take a genius to figure out you're passing. Face it, if the criteria is simply being unpredicatble then we were far more unpredicatble then any of those three teams that I mentioned but when you look at effectiveness then we pale in comparison.

I still say that all of this boils down to passing and that terms like unpredictable or aggressive or creative are just euphimisms for passing. Being unpredictable doesnt mean success. Hell I could run a fake punt on 4th and 20 and fool the defense but if I only get 15 yards how effective was it?

Henning was let go not because he was predictable but because the offense wasnt effective and one of two reasons

either
1) Ross determined that the fanbase wants a more wide open passing attack and forced it on Sparano or
2) Sparano determined on his own that they needed to go into a more spread heavy passing offense to be effective and get away from the run heavy approach that Henning favored

 

Like Manning's pick 6 parade mid season? Mark Sanchez's career? Joe Flacco's well documented second half meltdowns?

 

Or maybe we needed to get away from Hennings bull**** playcalling?

Look his offense can be effective with a savvy and highly intelligent QB. But Henning's offenses are NOT quarterback-friendly nor do they center around the QB. Henning has a motto he likes to follow, which is "I look at how much our quarterbacks can hurt us, not help us." His offense calls for a highly accurate and low-mistake QB, which Pennington was. Contrary to the belief, Henning does design plays that call for big plays/chunk yards. However, its usually only 1 option and if you miss the window its gone. Its not a multiple option offense, which I mean that the QB has multiple options and chances to hit players deep or for big gains. Its a small option and low-mistake Offense. It works with QBs like Pennington because he doesn't miss on opportunities and KNOWS how to eat up the clock. Henne is a 2nd year QB and one that is prone to making mistakes, but he is also prone to throwing for 300+ yards and multiple TDs in a game if you build your offense around him to do so. It was either Henning or Henne and obviously they went with Henne.

 

oh I agree completely. Getting rid of Henning is acceptable. I was just making the point that its not about being unpredicatble. Its simply about being effective and maybe about being more exciting i.e. passing

 

True, but its also about being unpredictable. You say the Colts run the same plays. They do, but they switch up the combo routes for the Z spot and X spot almost each game. They will run a slant-out combo one game to a sluggo-out n up to another game which has a whip route with a deep double move comeback. The thing is that Henning ran the same freaking routes that had 0 double moves and were all elementary. He ran sets with Fasano as his Y in a 3 WR set. He ran sets that gave two options with Marshall and Fasano.

Henning had a bull**** offense that helped out no one. You need to be unpredictable in some phases of the game, and Henning was unpredictable twice during the entire season. The roll-out throwback screen to Fasano in the GB game and the flea-flicker in the Cincy game. TWICE.

When I was at the Baltimore game live with 3rd row seats from the field, I have never seen such a poorly designed and executed offense. All the wideouts ran less than 10 yard routes with no deep threat. They all ran curls, outs or slants on the same side. I saw one freaking double move and it was a curl-slant route. Ed Reed was allowed to roam all the time because Hartline can't beat man coverage and Reed never had to worry about deep because he had his eyes on Marshall the entire game and roaming.

IF this team is intent on going forward with Henne, you give him a spacing offense that operates at each level with speed. You get him a fast RB, TE, and WR who can eat up cushions on defenders quickly and can get open at each level. Henne CAN succeed if he is given space on the field. He literally can make every single throw on the field and is actually an intelligent player. I was at the Elite 11 camp with him when he came to teach and I have never seen a QB make the throws he can make. He can drive a 25 yard out on the money. 25 yards!! Thats insane. I've seen him throw a rocket on a 30 yard dig. He has one the best arms in the NFL (Top 4) and it was hindered by Henning. Henne does have flaws, but you surround him with speed, and he can succeed.

 

double moves take time. you have watched henne for two years now. he doesnt let plays develop. he runs through his progressions like he's on a mission to checkdown. also having henne throw it further than twenty yards takes him out of his comfort zone accuracy wise. i would agree that more complex routes would be nice but since Ive seen Steve Smith run them in Carolina on a consistent basis I know that there was a conscious effort to minimize them and the only explanation can be Henne or at least Henning's perception of what Henne can do and cant do

 

Well Henne ate up the double moves consistently at Michigan and with Ted Ginn last year. It has to do more with speed and if your O-Line allows you to build that time. Smith is blazing fast, hence his double move tendency. This offense has ZERO speed.

The tagline on Henne is essentially this: You give him a good O-line and give him time in the pocket, he will eat you apart. He can make every single possible on the field and even the deep ball. You give him a mediocre to bad o-line, he will do terrible. Henne is not a quarterback who can make plays on his own. What he can do is take that 3-5-7 step drop back and destroy you with time. So its either you build an entire offense around him and his skills or you give up on him.

 

once again complete agreement

 

I have to disagree here adam. Calling the same formation is not predictible when each formation has different plays and you mix it up. Henning was extremely predictable. The Colts may line up 5 wide and give away that it's a pass, but which routes are the WR's going to run? That's unpredictability. Henning called the same plays for the same situations too many times. He became predictable.

 

the colts run their "levels" passing plays more than any other team or more than any other that i can think of. more than the Pats or Packers. what makes it effective is not that its unpredictable its how its executed. i could make the same argument with Henning maybe not as much with his passing plays but with his running plays. Henning will run about six or so basic run plays but he will run it out of twenty differnt formations and personnel packages. even though you may know its a run play you wont know exactly what hole is being attacked

One thing I do hope Daboll brings to our offense is more "level" type of passing plays. They are very effective if you get the right people running them and they may be more QB friendly for Henne

 

I think the fact that players on three separate teams claimed to know what plays were we running speaks to predictability. The Bills, Titans (though we won) and Ravens all said they knew what we were going to do. If just one player had said it, I could see it as a fluke, especially if that player was Cortland Finnegan, but three guys? Henning got predictable, for sure.

 

Adam is right on this one. Henning is an effective run-playing coordinator. He does run the same 5-6 plays but out of like 40 different formations. The problem was, our O-line couldn't block for crap and our RBs couldn't make yards out of nothing. Henning has to turn to the passing game, which he dislikes, and it goes away from his speciality of running.

The question was, did the Dolphins want to stay as a power running smash-mouth offense which 100% relies on the running game to succeed, or turn to a more passing oriented attack? The latter was the choice, evident by the leaving of Henning, an excellent run-oriented playcaller but ****ty passing play caller.

 

exactly. thats been my point throughout in a completely roundabout way. henning is very creative or unpredictable but its in the running game. When it comes to the passing game he's pretty pedestrian. It can work well as you said when you have a QB that can take advantage of those times when Henning dials up the home run play after the defense is caught creeping into the box. But this year he was stuck with an offensive line that couldnt run block and a QB who couldnt hit the few opportunities he had for the big play so the whole offense got bogged down in ineffectiveness

Now it seems that we are proclaiming that we want to be more pass oriented. To be honest I dont know what to make of Daboll. He had a very effective run game with Peyton Hillis and his passing game was a big question mark due in part to his talent to work with. But I will assume we will open it up more. Thats why you get rid of Henning. If you want to be a passing team ditch Henning. If you wanted to stay a running team then there are very few coordinators who can do a better job then Henning

Which brings me back to my original point which is that when we talk about becoming a more creative, or aggressive or unpredictable offense it all comes down to passing because noone notices a creative or unpredictable running game

 

You're right, the Colts are predictable in a strategic sense. But tactically, Peyton Manning is a master at getting his team into the right play based on pre-snap reads, and he has the authority to make audibles whenever he chooses. He's pretty good at executing also. Henne, as far as I can tell, was not given the freedom to audible based on pre snap reads, aside from killing one play to the next. I never saw him changing plays based on his PSRs. Maybe Henning sent the perfect play in every time, but I doubt it.

Another point on predictability, and this can be blamed on personnel to a large extent, for a team with a rocket armed QB, our passing game never progressed past where it was with Pennington. If anything, it became more conservative. We used max pro ad nauseum, even during games where we were not being blitzed. People say "Henne has all day to throw and he just checks down or throws it away, Checkdown Chad!!!". Ignoring or not realizing that we have 3 (slow) receivers trying to get open vs a 7 man coverage. That's enough guys to double all 3 and have a robber in the middle. It's just not going to work consistently, I dont care who your QB is. If you can't threaten every part of the field, the defense will naturally converge and overplay the areas you're attacking to take them away. This happened to us ALL SEASON and Henning didnt adjust. Henne lit it up vs teams who gave us man looks (Jets, Packers, Raiders). But we never had an answer for Basic Cover 2, all year. Its inexcusable IMO, that we didnt even seem interested in changing our approach, not using some of the basic route concepts to attack the coverage that was kicking our *** week in week out.

Our running game was predictable also Power right, over and over again. A few Iso plays, a toss here and there, the odd ill timed and executed draw play. We're posed to be this power running team, yet we only have two or 3 running plays? C'mon man. Watch the Jets games. They run power, toss, iso, trap, counter, stretch, all effectively. They run the zone play to take advantage of teams who are clogging the middle or not holding the edge well. They trap over aggressive interior linemen and counter overaggressive LBs. They use play action to discourage creeping safeties and run blitzes.Us? We just call our same three run plays over and over. No deception to speak of, and when it doesnt work, we blame bad execution and then ask Henne to bail us out. I don't want to make it seem like Henning was the whole problem. Clearly he wasn't. But he was incompetent IMO, not willing and/or able to fix obvious flaws in our play calling, consistently designing gameplans that were ill suited for what we were likely to face (Cover 2), and an overall lack of attention to detail (screen/draw/playaction execution) that permeated his entire unit.

 

henning's system couldnt work with what he had to work with. i realized that about week 5 when i officially gave up on the offensive line improving. if henning cant run you're in for a long year..A good QB could compensate somewhat but with henne that wasnt going to happen this year. its funny but i was watching some jets/dolphins game last couple days. both games from 2009 and 2010. the difference in run blocking is staggering when you play them back to back. i mean its night and day especially second level blocking. you want to see why we sucked this year just watch the run blocking in the first game of 2009 and then compare it to the first game in 2010.

as for cover 2, there were plenty of times we ran smash routes that are highly effective against cover 2 but henne didnt throw it to the 15 yd corner route. instead he checked down even though the play was there. its difficult to gauge sometimes when watching on tv because you dont see the whole field but henne left a lot of plays on the table. it seemed there was always one home run pass in every game that henne missed or failed to see develop.