I had a lot of hopes for Henne this year, but to date, he is a below average QB. To call him below average is probably generous. That TD pass that he missed to Marshall on the first drive is INEXCUSABLE. I'm happy about the 2-0 and I am not a pessimist, but I don't think that Miami can win the AFC East with Henne at QB. I keep waiting for him to have a breakout game, but I've come to the conclusion that he's just not that good. I keep going back to that terrible throw. I could find you 5 guys on the nearest high school team that can make that throw. He's supposed to be an NFL QB.

On the bright side, the defense is incredible, and we have good depth at QB.

He has the tools so I am going to be more patient and wait for the experience factor. I still hope he can be a stud.

Here we go again. Doom and gloom.

You complain about the TD pass he missed. How about the one he hit 2 plays later?

The only QBs we've had since Marino that I MIGHT consider better than Henne are listed below, and each had their issues:

1. Pennington (super weak arm severely limited our passing game)
2. Gus Frerotte (experienced, but old. This guy was at the tail end of his career)
3. Jay Fiedler (weak arm...and useless after his shoulder injury).

Henne is a HUGE upgrade to Feely, Lemon, Greene, Griese, Lucas, Harrington, Rosenfels, Culpepper (did I miss anyone?). Henne isn't as accurate in the short passing game as Pennington, but he's been improving every year. He has the strongest arm of any QB we've had since Marino. He doesn't turn the ball over, which is HUGE (and the primary reason for our 11-win season 2 years ago!!).

With a high caliber defense and a solid running game, we're not going to need a superstar QB. I'm confident Henne can take us all the way.

Your not gonna see Henne open it up until he has to, why would you? If the running game is working why mess with it? To think this regime is gonna open it up ala the Marino years is just crazy, ball control and defense is how this team is being built and so far so good. At some point he will have to air it out, and if my memory serves me correctly last year he made some really nice 3rd/4th down throws in crucial times to pull out wins. Henne's doing just what they ask of him, manage the game and limit the picks, so far he's 2-0 with no INT's on the road in hostile enviroments.

First of all, montequi, I think your list is spot on.

To say that Henne is less than Fiedler says it all. Statistically, Fiedler was an average QB. Henne hasn't even risen to an average level. This team isn't going anywhere with a below average QB.

Yes, he made a throw later. It was a decent throw. It doesn't excuse the pathetic, unbelievably terrible throw to Marshall.

I agree that Henne needs to step it up.
Not only did he miss a routine pass to Marshall, he also has other key areas to improve in.
Touch on the ball, extending plays, mobility, throwing on the run, quicker release, timely D recognition to audible, speed (no wheels), field vision(too much locking on to one receiver), and most of all, his play fakes are miserable.
Sure, he's young and developing. He's got pleanty of arm, but a very good QB is more than how far he can throw it.

bradinthecreek Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First of all, montequi, I think your list is spot
> on.
>
> To say that Henne is less than Fiedler says it
> all. Statistically, Fiedler was an average QB.
> Henne hasn't even risen to an average level. This
> team isn't going anywhere with a below average
> QB.

I said I MIGHT consider this list better than Henne. Henne is only in his 3rd year, and it might as well be his 2nd. When healthy, Fiedler was a better than average QB, btw. He won a lot of games for us. I think Henne will surpass all those guys this year.

> Yes, he made a throw later. It was a decent throw.
> It doesn't excuse the pathetic, unbelievably
> terrible throw to Marshall.

You're harping on him for ONE THROW!!??? Geez, dude. Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to play QB in the NFL?

The game will continually slow down more and more for Henne. He will get better. He has weapons.

Lets actually start the season, get midway through then lose a few games before we start bashing a QB that is 2-0 at this point of the season.

---------------------

"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

Yeah, our passing game definitely needs to produce more, BUT no interceptions = huge for me. It ain't pretty for highlight reels or statistics, but the low-risk approach has worked so far.

The big question is whether we will air it out more against the Jets. I think we will, and have been holding back until this point in order not to reveal our tendencies on film.

socalphin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree that Henne needs to step it up.
> Not only did he miss a routine pass to Marshall,
> he also has other key areas to improve in.
> Touch on the ball, extending plays, mobility,
> throwing on the run, quicker release, timely D
> recognition to audible, speed (no wheels), field
> vision(too much locking on to one receiver), and
> most of all, his play fakes are miserable.
> Sure, he's young and developing. He's got pleanty
> of arm, but a very good QB is more than how far he
> can throw it.

The biggest problem I see with Henne is that he has slow feet. A QB in this league has to be quick in the pocket. He has to feel the pressure (experience) and be able to side step at the very least.
I don't see this with Henne. Not last year, not in preseason and not in the last two games. I think that with more experience he will improve his accuracy and decisions, but the feet are a big question. The only way to disguise it is for the OL to give him as much time as possible.

Of coarse the biggest test will be against the Jets and last year he had a real nice game against them.

I think you have to look at the overall picture and progression. He showed the ability to move the offense last year...especially in the 4th quarter.

The offense has struggled up to this point in TWO games. The running game was pretty good against a top 3 rushing defense as they seemed to get on track in week 2. Now it is the passing game's turn.

Henne had a 61.8% and 60% completion rate thru the first two games. Yes he needs to improve but to say he is just average and will never be anything more is ridiculous doom and gloom.

How soon they forget the perfectly placed TD pass to Hartline last week in the corner of the end zone.

You can't put it all on Henne. The WR's have to get open as well. BTW..where was Bess last week? Fasano? Moore?

He threw the ball 15 times. He does not call the plays. Henning does...so what more did you want him to do last week with 15 passes? As JC mentioned, he has ZERO int's in two games. That was his biggest fault last year and EVERYONE on here criticized him for it, including me. So it seems he has worked to correct that problem. It's not like this is as good as he is ever going to get.

We aren't even half way through the season yet. Come week 9 and he is still not improving...then we can bitch. It's a little premature at this point. He will be fine. he had his share of 300 yard days last year and he will do it again this year.

If we aren't throwing a lot, we aren't behind. We haven't been behind at all in two games. I have no problem with that...as much as I love to see a gunslinger air it out.

OK...so he doesn't have quick feet, he stares down receivers, etc. Those are things he need to work on. I have seen NOTHING to lead me to believe that he won't work on them. He has corrected his decision making so far.

.....................................................................................
“I'm here" You're welcome!" - Kenny Powers

Hoping they have been keeping the good stuff for the Jets.

Would love to see something creative to rock the fat boy back this week.

I wouldn't get too torqued about that throw. It seemed to pretty clearly be a miscommunication on the route Marshall was running.

I have some other concerns and I do think he needs to play better. One, I don't think he has very good pocket vision. Maybe some of this is just getting reps but he does not seem very good about creating space for himself and he also does not seem to be able to escape contact. I guess his pocket presence overall bothers me.

The rest I think really has to go back to Sparano and Henning who have clearly decided to be ultraconservative about the way they call games and until the Dolphins are down two TDs or time is running out I doubt we will see them really open it up. Although I have to imagine they have something up their sleeves if they were willing to pay so much for Marshall.

Gotta relax on the Henne and Henning bashing.

Doesn't anyone remember where this team was last year after two games with Pennington at QB?!?

Seriously. The debacle at Atlanta. Absolutely no passing game vs. Indy. And then the disaster in San Diego.

For the past two years, this offense has had its worst games early in the season. Then the line gels and we get pretty good. We've been lucky this year because the defense has kept us in games early.

ghotirule Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> For the past two years, this offense has had its
> worst games early in the season. Then the line
> gels and we get pretty good. We've been lucky
> this year because the defense has kept us in games
> early.

Whats up Bud.....thats good news. If we are able to play better on offense and if we keep playing defense like we are now....We will be great by the end of the year and maybe we will have a shot at making the playoffs and even get to the second round at least.

Regarding the play-calling, I think you'll still see conservative against the Jets. Their secondary is still strong w/o Revis and we'll rely on forcing mistakes by Sanchez and controlling damage from the run just like with Minnesota. Against the Pats though, it will be a different story.

ABR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding the play-calling, I think you'll still
> see conservative against the Jets. Their
> secondary is still strong w/o Revis and we'll rely
> on forcing mistakes by Sanchez and controlling
> damage from the run just like with Minnesota.
> Against the Pats though, it will be a different
> story.


THIS! I was just getting ready to post something similar. I think we'll see some new Wildkat wrinkles if needed (maybe we don't need them and save em till next week) but I doubt we take any huge chances unless we get down. You damn sure dont want to give that Jets offense any easy field position, make them work for every inch.

Henne will be just fine. IMHO, He's developing at a satisfactory rate at the moment. However, he does need to get more help from the coaches. By that I mean if we are going to need him to air it out at some point this season then we must start letting him do it "a bit" more.

If we continue to pursue our conservative and safe approach toward offense then Henne will be less comfortable and prepared when he is thrust into a game where he must throw alot.

I'm not suggesting that we start throwing the ball 30-40 times a game here but I am suggesting that we throw a bit more often and be a bit more aggressive in route selection.

Dump off's, screens and the like are all well and good but more intermediate routes of 10-20 yards are what we must be calling more often. These routes will back the 7th and 8th defenders out of the box and will help in opening up the running game. Then the running game will open up play action and all of it together will open up the deep routes.

If Henne has a glaring weakness at the moment it's holding the ball too long. Play selection can and will help him with that. We need to call more quick developing plays to assist him with his continued devlopment. The coaches right now are not doing a good enough job in this area JMHO.

I, along with everyone here, want to see Marshall get more catches but he can't do it all by himself. Hartline, Bess, Moore, Fasano, Hilliard, Polite, Brown and Williams must each start to earn their paychecks in the passing game by getting open and reducing dropped balls.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2010 10:59AM by Ken.

Are we 2-0? Henne Is fine with me!!!

Tboneabbott

If you're mad at your kid, you can either raise him to be a nose tackle or send him out to play on the freeway. It's about the same.
-Bob Golic

Hartline caught all three pass's thrown to him last week, including the TD.

I think it finaly hit for him, that hey Im the replacement for Camarillo.

Honestly Henne has horrible pocket awareness, which I dont know if it is going to turn around.

Our play calling deff suites Pennington hands down, and if he was starting we would have scored more points, because he has ultimate pocket awareness.

The only way to acquire it is experiance, so we are stuck with ugly offense, because he throws alot of balls too low, and two weeks in a row has some balls batted down.

I hope he develops into a stud, has the potential, but he is on a short leash with me, because Pennington is sitting back licking his chops, and he has had 2 years to sit and learn one with playing full time.

I will give him 4 weeks to get this offense going, after that, if he is still struggling in the pocket then I dont know.

HOWEVER I do like his upside, but we hardly I'm sorry do we have a play from the Shot Gun formation??

Henning is simply keeping things vanilla plain and simple. Why?

I hope he is saving the good stuff for the tuff games, but the Vikings was a tuff game so I don't know if he is f.cking with us, or is just seriously being Lame on the play call's because he is old and crazy?

What Im getting at, is if this is our offense just put in Pennington, because he flourish's in this type of offense, which Henne clearly struggles in, which is under center not in shotgun.

Pennington is probably a better qb right now BUT who would you rather have under center if we do go down by 2 td's or more? I sure wouldn't want Pennington back there b/c he's no threat go deep.

Hopefully our D won't let that happen but when/if it does, I feel much more comfortable with Henne.

And as for this weekend, I agree that we won't see more aggressive play calling. NE tried that and it didn't work. Baltimore's game plan is what you'll see from us.

I tnink Henne will be fine. In the Vikings Game I think as someone else mentioned, given the game situations the play calling was designed to minimize mistakes. On several occasions last year Henne made all kinds of plays to keep the Dolphins in games. Most notably was the game against the jets (the passes to camarillo and Ginn) agaist the so called best defense in the league and revis. Steve Young was excasperated about what a great young QB Henne is. The Vikings have a good defense and it was a road game. I think as the year progresses we'll start seeing more screens and play action passing and unique formations that are not seen on film.

What I have a problem with and don't understand is running the Wildcat without bringing Ricky in motion. To me it becomes obvious where the run is going and allows the defense to be more aggressive in going after Ronnie.

"There he goes, one of god's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant, never even considered for mass production. to weird to live, to rare to die." Hunter S. Thompson/per Slash

When Marshall and Henne get on the same page we are gonna be dangerous. I do realize that Marshall is seriously a beast and has been open numerous times, some for probably touchdowns.

But those kind of throws will come. They will get in rythm. It will happen.

---------------------

"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

As long as Henne doesn't throw picks, and his completion rate is in the 60s, I love him.

When the time comes, whether it's against the Jets or Pats, they'll open up the playbook and I think Henne will deliver the goods.

Henne had one great game last year. The first game against the jets. He also had a couple of good games. All in all, I was encouraged by Henne's promise coming into this year. But I am with Parcells, he's not developing.

Some on here say, "It's the conservative playcalling." Conservative playcalling didn't seem to be a problem for Dixon (Steelers QB with 1 start coming into this season). So why are you making excuses for Henne? Conservative playcalling didn't make Henne miss Marshall when he was WIDE OPEN against the Bills the first week. That wasn't a conservative playcall. Conservative playcalling didn't make Henne miss Marshall for a TD against the Vikes. A throw a pee wee QB would make 9 times out of 10.

Keep in mind that we have typically saved the new stuff for the division Rivals first game.

- Ala wildcat for Pat 2 years back
- Jets last year we oipend it up too.

I'm hoping that the FINS have some pass options off of the w/c and a lot of screens / swing pass options to counter the Jets agressive rushing

Add in some down field to marshal not yet revealed and Rex could be shooting fingers at the crowd again ..

Phinjim Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------
>
> Add in some down field to marshal not yet revealed
> and Rex could be shooting fingers at the crowd
> again ..


AHHAHAHAhHAHHAHAHAHA That would be cool expecccccially if he would get his HAMBONIC face fined.