The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I figured someone would have already posted this but they never did. Personally I find this humerous and actually more desperate than the Favre situations of the last few years. What is he thinking other than easy money?  What in the world could a coach be thinking to actually sign him? Of course the way things are going we will probably sign him and try to start him again.  :-\


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Miami-Dolphins-QB-Chad-Pennington-to-attempt-another-comeback-011711


Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington said Monday he will try to come back again from another shoulder injury.

“I’m going to make a run at it, and the reason I am is that I still have that fire inside,” Pennington told The Palm Beach Post.

“I have to go out and see if my shoulder can respond. If it doesn’t respond, I can live with that. But if it does, or it could have responded and I didn’t give it a chance, I don’t think I could live with that.”

Pennington had a fourth surgery on his shoulder after suffering another injury this season for the Dolphins.

The free agent plans to visit Dr. James Andrews next month.

The Dolphins on Monday hired former Jets quarterbacks coach Brian Daboll to be their offensive coordinator. He worked with Pennington when he was at the New York Jets during the 2007 season.

I used to have this G.I. Joe toy as a kid.  Its one arm would pop off and on really easily.  My point is, Penny is going to be an amputee if he keeps this up.  Retire already man!

Actually I'd love to see Pennington back again for the Dolphins...only as a QB coach. 

If the Dolphins do in fact hire Daboll, I'd like to see them give Pennington a shot as a QB coach.  Pennington worked with Daboll when they were with the Jets and Miami wouldn't be taking Daboll if Pennington didn't give him an endorsement.  I think Pennington would make a fine QB coach at some point, why not let him cut his teeth here in Miami where he already has a good relationship with both the QB and the Offensive coordinator?  Sure, it would mean learning on the fly for Pennington, but there aren't many smarter guys than Pennington and Daboll can do most of the work while bringing Pennington along.  It's not a definite that they even bring in a QB coach to work with Daboll, so it's not like they don't believe he can handle the OC and QB coaches duties.  Why not let Pennington come along for the ride and learn as much as he can.  Makes sense to me.

Pennington - 1
Thigpen -2
Henne -3

If Pennington gets hurt, he gets hurt.

I stood next to Pennington and Henne during warm ups in the 2009 season.   Seeing them literally side by side highlighted just how weak Pennington's arm is, and this was before his latest injury and surgery.

In Pennington's favor is his accuracy and field vision.  Against him is his mobility, arm strength and durability.  Pennington has played 11 years, 9 years as a starter.  Only twice in that time has he played all 16 games, and his durability and arm strength aren't going to get better. 

(side note - look at the play where he was injured this year.  He just gets knocked down, not a really hard hit.  I know you can get injured if you fall funny, but it doesn't give me much confidence when he can only make it through 1 play and 1 light hit, before a season ending injury.)

Obviously, I don't think Pennington is the answer for our anemic offensive.  With his limitations, defenses can stack the box and virtually ignore the outside passing game.  He will only perpetuate the problems we have, and he does nothing to move the QB position forward.  At best, he is a poor short term solution, and if Miami brings him back as a starter, I will see the move as a sad attempt to save the coaches job with a short term solution that guarantees we will be facing the same issues next year.

There has always been a lot of talk about Pennington coaching.  Before we give him the role of QB coach, I'd like to understand what he did this year while on the bench and on IR.  Was he helping Henne at that time?  If those are the results we can expect, maybe Pennington needs to develop his coaching skills at a lower level before taking on the position in the NFL.  Just a thought.

I agree with what you're saying, I just don't know how much help Pennington could really offer Henne this year.  I know that last year when Pennington was out most of the year and on IR there was talk of having Pennington on the sideline during games to help Henne, but that Sparano had a strict policy than anyone on IR could not be on the sidelines for games and that he would not break that rule even for Pennington.  I'm assuming that same rule was in place this year.  That still leaves outside of games for Pennington to help Henne, however the Dolphins already had a QB coach this year and no doubt it would be overstepping his bounds for Pennington to try to fill that role, so I'm not sure Pennington had much of a chance to help Henne.

I am ok with this.  I can understand why people would use common sense and say that Pennington's arm is toast.  However, medical outcomes are a funny thing.  Keep in mind that the second injury was likely very minimal.  It is very possible that with proper rehab, that Pennington's arm could be stronger and healthier than ever next season.

Dr. Andrews is no joke.  If he is getting medical advice from Dr. Andrews that his arm has the potential to be as good as ever, then I say go for it.  If this is purely about a "fire" in his heart then I would urge him to retire as a player.  Some injury repairs, such as spinal repairs, tend to only lead to additional risks and weakening.  Some injury repairs can give results that offer little to no additional risk or decline in performance.

Don't forget the lessons of the Drew Brees situation.  But I understand why most people would be skeptical.

This is just the kind of explanation I want to hear.  A reasonable explanation as to why Chad Henne regressed at a time when you would expect Pennington to be helping him.  If it does turn out to be true, it's disappointing that the team was unable to utilize Pennington in some way, since he wasn't contributing on the field.  

As long as the headline is "Pennington to attempt comeback" and not "Pennington named Dolphins starter," I don't see any problem with it at all. Who can really blame a man for wanting to keep competing at his chosen profession?

I personally think his arm is toast, but if he wants to give it a shot...more power to him.

The TV showed Pennington on the sideline several times this year. I can't recall last season though.

The problem with that line of thinking is that Pennington's arm has never been very good to begin with.  Saying it can be as good as it ever has been isn't saying much. :)

I'm not against Pennington trying to make a comeback, I just don't think he will be ready in time for next year.  He wasn't ready to come back this year in my opinion.  He was rushed back because Sparano wanted to give his team a spark and he wasn't ready which caused the injury.  If he wants to make a comeback in 2012 after a full year of rehab and getting his arm strength back up to 100%, then maybe.

Hmmm.  Perhaps they did change the policy.  I didn't really understand the policy anyway.

That's kinda how I feel.  If he's on the roster, start him -- what's the difference?  If he gets hurt, you don't play him anymore anyway.

Not necessarily true.  If you recall, Pennington's arm strength was not an issue early in his career.  He was pushing the ball downfield just fine in his playoff game against the Colts (way back).  

It is more recent that Pennington was first injured in New York and he was using his legs to compensate for his discomfort.  Once he got to Miami, he was re-learning his original throwing motion.  It is definitely possible that he could be better than we have ever seen him.

I wish I could go back and find the interview in which Pennington explained this sequence of events and the changes in his throwing motion/ability, but it was last year sometime and doubt it is posted anywhere.  But I am not making it up or taking much liberty in relaying what I heard.

The problem is that he will take up a roster spot.  If the Fins want to draft a late round QB to try and develop there won't be a spot for him.

^ You usually keep 3 QBs on a roster, no?

I disagree with a couple things you are saying.  First, Henne needs an experienced QB coach.  Pennington may, or may not, be a good QB coach, the point is the Fins can't afford to find out at this point.  As for Daboll doing double duty as OC and QB coach I'm against that too.  Last year shows that the Fins need some major work in the OC dept., so it would be crazy to bring in a new guy without prior OC experience and expect him to excel when splitting his duties.  It would be hard enough for an experienced OC.  I would rather just see Daboll as the QB coach.

Yeah, and how'd that work out last year??

I don't understand the connection.  We didn't suck because we had 3 QBs on the roster.

It's 'cause the ones we had playing were crappy.

hennes time is up in miami, they aren't bringing in qb coachs to help him.

I don't get what you are trying to say. Daboll has experience.

The point I was trying to make was that Pennington was basically one play and done for the year, so it was a waste of a spot.  When you are looking to add a player in the middle of the year you don't have the pre-season time to work with and develop a third player.  Keeping an aging, injury prone player like Pennington would be a mistake, IMO.  I'd rather see an undrafted free agent or late round draft pick as the third QB.  The second QB has to have some experience, as he will probably be called upon to play.

^ You can't use a sample size of 1.

Yes, Pennington got hurt in his last year with us.  But when he started before, he won 11 games.

I'm not a doctor, so I can't speak on the probability of injury.  If a guy gets injured, he goes on IR and opens up a roster spot anyway, right?  If you think it's not worth it, that's fine -- I won't argue.  I'm not sure that it is.  But I think that there is room for him.  Your 3rd QB likely isn't going to play anyway, so it's really not ALL that risky.

^ And, if you're down to your 3rd QB, you're screwed anyways. Not many 3rd string QBs pick up the pieces mid-season and take the team to the promised land.

To repeat one of my arguments, if the third spot opens up in mid-year it's really useless as far as developing a player goes.  During the season the coaches aren't working on developing the third string QB.  Whereas, during the off season and during preseason they do work with the third string QB's more.  IMO an older previously injured player is more likely to be re-injured.  IMO having Pennington is like having only two QB's. As for a sample size of one, you are aguing that because he won 11 games one year he deserves to be on the roster.  That's not a good argument as far as i'm concerned.

And that's only part of the problem.  Your #1 QB takes most of the "live" snaps.  Sure the other QB's get a lot of practice snaps when just throwing to receivers and stuff, but actual 11 on 11 drills are minimal and your #1 gets most of those.  So if you have Penny taking the majority of snaps in pre-season getting him ready for the year and then he gets hurt in the 1st game of the year, you've cost your starter a whole pre-season's worth of reps.

There's absolutely no way in hell that I let Penny be my #1 QB next year.  Maybe I let him be the insurance policy because yes in that case, if he gets hurt it's no big deal, you haven't wasted a lot of time getting him prepared to play anyway.

My initial anti-Pennington post was in response to someone suggesting he should be our starter.  

I think you are suggesting him for the 3rd spot.  I think of that spot as a holding place for a recently drafted "project"; but if there aren't any, I guess it would be okay.  It might make more sense to have him in the number 2 spot, ready to play if needed.  My biggest objection to having him as a 2 or 3 would be money.  I'm not sure what his salary is, but in 1999 is was close to $6M.  That's a lot to pay for a backup.  Even if you renegotiate, he's a 12 year vet and the league minimum would be more than I would want to pay.

In the end, I would rather have Miami look in another direction.  My reasoning is simple.  We are looking for a franchise QB.  There are no obvious choices, so we are going to have to try and find one.  Our best chance of doing that is to use our QB roster spots on guys who "may" be the QB of the future.  Since Pennington doesn't fit that criteria, I wouldn't bring him back.

Final thought - Since we are still some distance from competing with the Jets and Pats, I would rather lose, and lose big while we try to find real answers to the personnel problems we have.  Short term solutions that provide short term benefits keep us from addressing the issues that have plagued the team over the past few years.

 

I say let him compete for the job and if can win it, he deserves it.

You are correct, my bad.  Before making the post all I read about Daboll was that he was the former Jets QB coach in the OP's opener.  Like others, sometimes I should read more and post less. :(

With the talent we have, Brett Favre could win the job.  We might even make the play-offs; but would we be moving in the right direction?  I don't see how starting Pennington in hopes of playing .500 football is the answer.  Maybe it's just frustration and desperation on my part, but I'm sick of being mediocre.  I'm sick of watching the Pats strut around.  I'm sick of the loud mouth Jets and their loud mouth coach.  What we are doing with our personnel isn't working.  Since we aren't 1 or 2 players away from competing against the top teams in our division, I think the time is right to rebuild our skill positions on offense.

I actually wasn't arguing that.  I was just pointing that that's also a sample size of 1.  I don't expect him to come in and win 11 games, but I don't expect him to get injured on the first drive, either.  Either or neither can happen.

There is a hole in this theory. When you have an injury prone player as one of the two ahead of him, you should count on the third QB playing at some point because he will likely be the number two at some point.

No "IF" anymore....its when!

He is too much of a liability and ties up a valuable roster spot at a very thin position. Can't bring him back as a player

I was thinking of Pennington as that 3rd QB.

But I see your point.

Pennington at his age isn't coming back to the NFL to be a 3rd QB. He is gonna want to play. He isn't coming back to ride the bench

I wouldn't say that. He did just that last year. I think he likes being involved and getting paid. I don't think there is any question he could probably coach but as a player he would make way more money.

Let's assume that our choices are this:

Henne
Pennington
New Blood

vs.

Henne
Free Agent
New Blood

vs

Free Agent
Pennington
New Blood



I don't think that the choices that involve Pennington are any worse than the others.

What about

Free Agent
Henne
New Blood

Specifically

V. Young
C. Henne
new blood

What is going to make Vince Young change his attitude?  Vick had a life changing experience.  Maybe Young needs a different coach or maybe he is a princess.  I don't want to take the chance on the latter.

I don't know that his attitude will change, but I see Young as the best option with the most upside.  I know he's not ideal, but at some point you have to pick from what's available. 

Really, it doesn't have to be Young, I was just pointing out that there is another option.

I have no idea if Young can be a good QB or not, but I'm kind of concerned that I don't think he's saying the right things. I think he didn't work hard in Tennessee.  I don't think that he's come to terms with that yet.

I have no clue as to what Young's attitude will be. But I would rather roll the dice on him at his age, changing his attitude over Pennington's arm. I know Chad's arm after all of these surgery's now won't be anything close to an NFL level arm. Too many operations on it.

If the choice is between Young and Pennington I would agree wtih you.  Too bad you can't put Pennington's head on Young's body.

Isn't he a FA this year? 

I don't see him being a starter anywhere.  But I would not be surprised if he was at least a camp arm somewhere next year.

Let Pennington do the coach on the sidelines thing.  He'll help Daboll and whoever the hell our quarterback ends up being.  They can even start him if they want I don't give a shit anymore.