Posts tagged ChadHenne at FanHouse

On Friday, the Dolphins sent quarterback Josh McCown to the Panthers, presumably to provide depth behind Jake Delhomme after Matt Moore suffered what looked to be a serious injury during the preseason finale against the Steelers (turns out, Moore will be okay and, like the rest of us, is day to day).

Prior to moving McCown, there was some speculation that Miami would either trade or release John Beck, the team's 2007 second-round pick. After all, Beck was drafted by the previous regime, and Bill Parcells himself had green-lighted the McCown signing, which included $2.5 million in up-front loot.

Funny story. According to the Palm Beach Post's Edgar Thompson, general manager Jeff Ireland has a perfectly rational explanation for keeping Beck and jettisoning McCown.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterbacks: The Brett Favre Fallout ended up with Chad Pennington coming to Miami. Good thing, because the Dolphins didn't have a quarterback on their roster. Well, technically they did ... but when you are having a three-man race to figure out who might be able to handle the job ... you have no QB. Pennington gives Miami what they need: an experienced, accurate passer. He's a winner, but not the kind of guy who makes those dynamic plays. Right now, they don't have great receivers, either, so a guy that can hit his target is key. Chad Henne may be the future ... but that's what we thought about John Beck last year. Heat Index: 4

Running backs: This is the biggest strength of this offense. During their 1-15 season last year, the fact that Ronnie Brown was having an outstanding season was lost on many people. Brown was worthy of a Pro Bowl spot before he tore his ACL in mid-season. All indications are that he's healed. Brown will share duties with Ricky Williams. Yep, he's back and he's bad! I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ricky has been a model teammate. He's basically lived at the Dolphins complex, is in supreme physical shape and could get back to his pre-retirement form. Of course, that is all the good. The bad is that your steadiest part of the team involves a guy with a major knee injury and another who is now 31, barely has played over the last several seasons, already has two strikes and is unreliable. At least he's not on the hippie lettuce anymore. Heat Index: 7

As the world quit spinning to watch Brett Favre take the field with the Jets for the first time last night, another quarterback was making his debut with a new team. Coincidentally, it was the same guy that was run out of New York to make room on the roster for The World's Most Selfish Player.

Yep, Chad Pennington started for the Dolphins, and for all the fanfare surrounding Favre, Pennington had just as impressive an outing in Miami.

Chad Pennington got off on the right foot with his new Dolphins teammates, completing 5-of-6 passes for 55 yards and a 104.9 quarterback rating while playing into the second quarter. After missing on his first throw, Pennington completed his final five and led the Dolphins to their first touchdown drive of the exhibition season

Rookie second-rounder Chad Henne took over for Pennington in the second quarter and played the rest of the game. Which means that John Beck and Josh McCown, quarterbacks Nos. 3 and 4 depending on who's making out the depth chart, didn't get off the bench.

PFT speculates that the Dolphins will keep McCown, signed during the Bill Parcells regime, and cut/trade Beck, who was drafted by Randy Mueller and Cam Cameron. The Palm Beach Post's Ben Volin writes that both McCown and Beck participated in the quarterbacks meetings after each offensive possession, "but Beck mostly stood by himself on the sidelines."

No idea what that means other than Beck seems to be very, very sad.

Yesterday I mentioned that Dolphins' quarterbacks Josh McCown and John Beck, two guys battling for the starting job just a week ago, got zero reps in practice during the 7-on-7 drills. Hardly a big deal since Chad Pennington was being force-fed a new offense in the hopes that he would be ready for the upcoming preseason game.

Despite what head coach Tony Sparano might say, it's pretty clear Pennington is the the guy going forward, at least until rookie Chad Henne is ready to assume full-time duties.

Which means that McCown and Beck probably won't be in Miami -- one way or the other -- when the season begins in three weeks.

Former Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese, now with ESPN, said the notion of the Dolphins keeping four quarterbacks is ''unrealistic and outrageous'' and believes they will get only a late-round pick for Josh McCown or John Beck, if that. ''I wouldn't think they would have much value,'' he said. Miami reportedly will gauge trade interest in both but is on the hook for McCown's $2.5 million signing bonus if he is traded or cut.

Hindsight and all that, but you can't blame the Dolphins front office for signing McCown this offseason. Brett Favre was "retired" and the Jets' asking price for Pennington was presumably higher than what it was once they acquired Favre.

Yesterday, Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano was trying to convince us that Chad Pennington hadn't been given the starting job. You know, competition, team spirit and all that.

Well, during this morning's practice, in an effort to foster said competition, quarterbacks Josh McCown and John Beck took zero snaps during 7-on-7 drills to give Pennington a chance to learn the offense. So although neither player got an opportunity to actually, um, compete, in terms of mental reps, they were killing it. Too bad mental reps don't lead to playing time.

In any event, according to the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero, it looks like the Dolphins' future will be in the capable(?) hands of Pennington and Chad Henne:

Basically, the Dolphins are showing their hand with the Chads. Or as Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland calls them, "Penny and Henne." One is the Mr. Right Now. The other one seems like Mr. Right for the longterm future of the team. Coach Tony Sparano said it is pretty obvious that Pennington will play versus Jacksonville Saturday evening. I would imagine, based on the work so far this week, either he or Henne would start.

So where does this leave Josh and John? There has been speculation that Beck, one year after Miami drafted him in the second round, could be cut. McCown, on the other hand, will probably stick around, primarily because he has an uncanny ability to avoid the turk. It's a gift, really.

In the meantime, the Dolphins might want to think about finding somebody for Penny/Henne to throw to.

Bill Parcells apparently isn't a big John Beck fan.

According to Pro Football Weekly, the Dolphins are likely to cut last year's second-round pick now that they've signed Chad Pennington to take over as the team's starter.

"They're going to give John two more weeks to show what he can do, but if he continues his awful play, he's out of here," a team insider told PFW. "He's been terrible throughout camp, and there's no way four quarterbacks are going to make the final roster. He's not one of (executive VP of football operations Bill) Parcells' guys, and they have no loyalty to him."

The Dolphins drafted Chad Henne in the second round this year, which was a pretty clear sign that the new regime wasn't exactly sold on Beck's potential as the team's quarterback of the future. The team also has Josh McNown on the roster, so it could keep McNown as the team's veteran backup, while Henne fills the young QB with potential role as the team's No. 3.

The NFL forces every team to come up with a depth chart before every game ... even exhibition ones. So Miami complied and listed Josh McCown as their #1 quarterback.

Well, for now.

"The depth chart is something I know you guys will make a lot out of but I don't make much of it right now,'' head coach Tony Sparano said. "It's something we had to produce and put out there, so we put it our there. That depth chart you have in your hand won't be the same this afternoon or tomorrow. It's going to change every single day.''

When further pressed for the reason why McCown, a seven-year veteran, was listed over John Beck, a second-year player, and Chad Henne, Sparano stressed it had more to do with experience than with their performance so far.

None of the quarterbacks have looked very good in camp, so picking McCown is the easy way out. McCown has 31 starts under his belt; Beck has four and Henne is a rookie.

Again, if this is how you determine your QB depth chart ... you have no QB.

Training camp can get old fast. What with the two-a-days (anybody still do that?), the oppressive heat, and all the tackling. It all get to be a bit much, frankly. Luckily, football czar/de facto owner/mentor Bill Parcells has found a way to break up the monotony: bring former Cowboys quarterback (and current Arena League sensation) Quincy Carter in for a workout.

If nothing else, it'll distract the players from their current situation, and more importantly, remind them that there are other, less fortunate souls trying to find our way in this world.

Michael Irvin reported the "news" on his radio show yesterday, so take that for what it's worth. But if Carter is given a try out, what, exactly, does that say about the current state of the Dolphins QB depth chart? Word on the street had Josh McCown as the early leader, what with Chad Henne just signing his contract and John Beck getting off to a "disastrous" start.

But are things so dire that Carter needs to called in? Good Lord, it's worse than I thought.

Of course, maybe Parcells is just reaching out to a former player, something he's fond of doing. Or maybe he thinks Carter still can play -- he did quarterback the Cowboys to their improbable 2003 playoff appearance. Plus, compared to other ganja lovers on the team, Carter's virtually a saint. At least according to Carter.

Who knows how this Dolphins three-way quarterback situation will resolve itself, but as it plays out, one thing is becoming abundantly clear: last year's second-round pick John Beck, is this year's new Cleo Lemon. Which is to say, he's pretty much out of the running for the gig before the competition gets going.

I mentioned yesterday that Chad Henne, this year's second-rounder, was finally under contract, which means that, for all practical purposes, he and journeyman Josh McCown will battle it out for the right to lead a team that won a whopping one time last year. And according to Pro Football Weekly, McCown is the early (early, early) leader for the honor:

Sources close to the club say [McCown] has impressed coach Tony Sparano with the ease with which he's picked up the nuances of the offensive system, which they credit to McCown's experience playing in many different systems. "He has this air of confidence to him," one source told PFW. "He's just this relaxed, happy kid who feels comfortable with where he's at." Additionally, he's been terrific throwing on the run, specifically on rollouts, which the Fins are expecting to utilize often.

It's not the perfect scenario, but McCown is better than either Daunte Culpepper or Trent Green, two players way past their primes by the time Miami brought them in to help "turn things around" (or some such).

Oh, and in case you needed confirmation, Beck had a "disastrous" start to camp, which has a lot to do with how the depth chart is shaking out. In Beck's defense, he wasn't bad in limited duty last season, but he's now the victim of being the "quarterback of the future" in the eyes of a front office that was just collectively canned.

With Chad Henne now under contract, the Dolphins quarterback job is officially a three-man race. Sure, one of those men almost lost a finger in a bizarre chainsaw accident, but whatever.

Now, though, Henne will join second-year player John Beck and offseason acquisition Josh McCown (who, as of this writing, still has 10 fingers) for the right to take upwards of 60 sacks next season. Not glamorous work, but with Bill Parcells at the controls, Miami should be competitive by the end of the decade, if not sooner. So there's that.

In the meantime, the two of the three QBs will share reps during 11-v-11 drills each practice, while the third QB will participate in 7-v-7 drills. It's a whole thing.

"We had a similar situation in Dallas [in 2005]," said [first-year head coach Tony] Sparano, then the Cowboys offensive line coach under Bill Parcells, now Dolphins vice president of football operations. "We had Drew [Bledsoe], Tony [Romo] and Drew Henson ... this three-headed monster going on.

Not the best example, I'd think. Bledsoe, who eventually won the job, and Henson are both out of football, and it took midway through the 2006 season before Romo was installed as the starter. Of course, as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Harvey Fialkov writes, if history is any guide, McCown should be the favorite; Parcells likes veterans and McCown most closely resembles that in Miami.

Not somebody you build a franchise around, but he should be serviceable while Beck and Henne battle for the gig.