saying Pennington was a huge part of our turnaround. Most of the players in the locker room said he was one of the biggest reasons this team was able to make a playoff run.

just sayin.

Or Henne? Or Beck?

I completely respect your opinion and share your sentiments about the 2009 season, but I wouldn’t expect too many quarterbacks to have a big day facing the Ravens defense with only Ginn and London as the WR for an important stretch of the game.

You’ve provided a dissenting opinion on the Phinsider for a while now, often times during live game threads and on subjects with near unanimous agreement from the rest of the community. This rubs many people the wrong way, but I find the discussion intriguing and helpful for expanding our appreciation of the team. Thus, I have rec’d this post in hopes of hearing others’ opinions on your decidedly minority take on Pennington. I hope you will not get discouraged when you are inevitably attacked for your beliefs.

Although… looking at your user profile, I would imagine we would get into further arguments regarding baseball and college basketball… :-p

I won’t feel the urge to compare starting rotations with you then.

you don’t rebuild around a 30+ QB. It doesn’t matter who he is. It doesn’t. Look back to the beginning of the season, and remember what we all said we needed. A care-taker. Somebody to mentor our future QB (Henne) and help us develop the various young players we have on our offense (Long, Thomas, Ginn, Bess, etc.). Pennington comes in, and he was EXACTLY that. He was everything we wanted out of this year’s QB, and then some. But, and I’m sure this is exactlly how Neo feels, we can’t forget what the ultimate goal was when Parcells first got here: to build a perennial contender. And I just don’t think, being completely realistic, that Pennington is a franchise QB FOR THE NEXT DECADE. And I think that’s the most important thing to remember this offseason, is that one magical season wasn’t what we all signed up for when we ordered the “Parcells Architect Kit.” We want to be a powerhouse, filled with young talent, that can own the AFC for the next 10 years.

So remember that when we don’t go after a high-priced FA to fix the secondary, or draft heavy on heavy guys again this year, or the roster continues to have very few ‘big’ names on it. We’re not building this team around Pennington for success next season, and then a fizzle. The Jets did that this year, took quite a few FA’s that we wanted, as fans(Faneca, Pace) and went for broke. Now, they’re at stage 1 of rebuilding. I don’t want that. I dealt with that for this entire decade. I want this team to be built around our future QB and become a powerhouse once again. A team that scares other teams, a team that can pound opponents deep into the playoffs and beyond.

And who do you really envision as the QB of those monstrous Dolphin squads? Personally, I see Henne. So don’t discount what Pennington has done. Not at all. But don’t forget where we’re trying to go.

negative, but not me… Dead on Neo as usual.

You bring up some good points BUT no Pennington means not as many victories. I think open competition between CP10 and Henne is a good idea and CP10 would be a good coach.

I think you, like many of us, are sadened by the game and want to blame someone. Blame the O-Line. Did you see Pennington get the protection that Flacco got? Everytime he got picked with the exception of the 2nd Reed INT, he was pressured big time. Watch the tape. If Smiley were here, might be a different story. Blame the offensive cordinator. Poor play calling. Who are the two guys Chad hit all year long? The tight ends.

I say no blame no body. The team lost. Who cares how it happened? You can’t hang it on Chad alone. He has been a force.

I do agree with you about next year. Schedule will be tougher, but this team will be fine.
Thank you for your candor

Understood all your points. The thing that have to be re-think is “The went”
Went is the best time to star Henne?
Should we star Henne this year? or wait another year. I know this are the questions that many fans have & i would bet you that, even the coaches has the same questions. We will see.

Ps Remember that went parcel went to the other teams, he ALWAYS started vet QB’s, at the end, the younger QB follow suit. So Henne’s time is around the corner, lets wait till the corner arrives

without pennington, we are not afc east champions or in the playoffs…i think pennington deserves all the credit given to him that he recieves. he has pulled this team together and brought veteran leadership in close games on the road. that should not be over looked. so i disagree with your post

Most of the time, people do and say things that have the least resistance. Like, it’s easy to praise Chad when we’re winning and it’s easy to slap him around when we loose. Unfortunately, the QB does get the horahs and the punishment.

Chad was a blessing for all the reasons stated 1,000 times. And he is the guy who can get you to the playoffs. But he IS NOT the guy to get you over the hump, unless you have an A+ team. We always see mediocre QBs win Superbowls who have great teams, but never do it alone, infact we’ve seen great QBs always struggle on poor teams.

There were 5 games this year in which I wish Henne (or someone else) was in there, only b/c I knew exactly what we’d get out of Chad and it is not enough to “dink and dunk” with the lack of receiving talent we have. NE in my opinon is still a better team and to beat them again, we better come up with a new “mystery” formation. This is a team we need to get down the field on and likely have to come from behind…not a good fit for Chad. Also, once we got behind Arizona, I cringed to watch Chad throw up so much. Lastly, there is the two games against BAL. Chad, as well as most of the offense, played with hesitation and what appeared to be intimidation. After a failed shot down the field, Chad would shell up… I watched him run away when the there was no pressure, just assuming he was about to get nailed. (Shame on the oline) There were some definate confidence issues out there, understandable against BAL’s D.

I suppose, in short, Chad is the answer today and we’ll not know if he is tomorrow unless the team greatly improves around him. He’s a 10-6, 11-5 QB with decent talent. I truly beleive that much of the play calling and even the advent of the wildcat were implemented to “cover-up” Chad’s deficiencies. Every QB has em’ but I just can’t stomach “giving up” on 3rd and longs or keeping good defenses on their heels. It’s these type of games, for us, against playoff claiber teams, that we need a QB who can keep defenses “honest”. Otherwise, they’re pinning back the ears and comin’ for us…

Thanks Chad, you were great. Hopefully we can build enough around you for next year and go 12-4 and deep into playoffs. Superbowl home-game sounds nice!

really?

i tend to agree. we over achieved this year and the thing CP gave us was stability while the team was adjusting to so many new players, at new positions, and with a new plan. But when you go against a D like the Ravens, you have to be able to get the ball deep and you need to be able to get it to guys quick. CP has touch, but I still don’t see the velocity on the outs, and several times this season he has under thrown Ginn on a fly. I think we need to find out this coming year what we have in Henne; otherwise, we could get a couple of years down the line and be pretty much done with “rebuilding”, and still looking for that long term answer at QB.
And you GOTTA know Henne will be chomping at the bit after seeing Ryan and Flacco jump in and be so successful their rookie seasons. :)

Well….Many times I click on the Phin and don’t log in..Just read everbody’s post..energize my Dolphin Karma and I am off with a full belly..back to my busy ass life. The one thing I love is that everyone on this site is very opinionated..which makes this site work and increases the testosterone..which in turn..makes the Balls Bigger.Big Balls are a good thing. My wife loves my Big Balls as I like to lay them on her forehead when she is peacefully sleeping and then scream..I’m Blind..I’m Blind…..but enough about me.
Logged in to give Props to NJDolphan68….Good Post. No matter how you feel about CP his post was about as accurate as it gets…..If you can’t find summation in his post..you may have missed a few games this year. I Like Chad and his play this year has been above above my expectations …..I think we can go deeper in the playoffs with him but NOT our team. We are several big playmakers away from being a dominant team. Great..we have some stability at quarterback..now lets go fill some bigger holes. WR,Safety,..on and on…..Rebuilding is a project..winning is a benefit.
We are a hundred miles away from where we were last year and the main thing that our team has learned this year is “What it feels like to WIN”
Proud to be a Dolphan!
Beafea

if henne does get the job, its simply disrespectful for the MVP runner up in a sense.

which comes back to the “look what he did for us. But wait it wasn’t only him” Its quite a conumdrum