Well, it certainly didn’t take long for Chad Pennington to find a new home.
Reports are out that Pennington has agreed a two-year, $11.5 million deal with his former team’s division rival and Week 1 opponent, the Miami Dolphins.
Take a quick look at the figures for the deal, and you’d be quick to surmise a key piece of information for John Beck, Chad Henne, and Josh McCown - Pennington is getting paid to come in start, not to sit on the bench and just be an extension of the quarterback coach.
Matt Severance called this one the other day in a post about Pennington’s release following the Jets’ trade for Brett Favre, so it isn’t exactly a surprise.
It does show that while Bill Parcells and Co. know that there’s a long rebuilding job ahead, they’re not looking to just mail it in and think solely of the future by handing the ball to someone they may not be fully confident in just yet.
Besides that, even though Beck and the others might be a little disappointed that they may be getting jumped over in the depth chart, there’s nothing like a little competition, especially from a proven, veteran quarterback, to help bring out your best, and when you’re a pretty green prospect, it doesn’t hurt to have someone like Pennington to learn from.
On the flip side, It is also a great leap of faith to pay a lot of money to a guy whose injury problems and lack of arm strength are well-documented. Pennington’s TD-to-INT numbers also haven’t exactly been stellar over the last couple of seasons (17 TD, 16 INT in 2006, 10 TD, 9 INT in 2007).
However, one thing that Matt pointed out that should be remembered is that Pennington is an extremely accurate passer, and in the end, it’s not about how far you can throw it, but if the ball ends up in the receivers’ hands, and that’s something that Pennington a relatively good job of throughout his career, with a career completion % of 65.6, 82 touchdowns to 55 interceptions in his career, and a career passer rating of 88.9, numbers that aren‘t shabby by any means. On top of that, he led the Jets to the playoffs three times, including just two seasons ago.
Really, it’s about the best signing that the Dolphins could make at this point, though I do scratch my head a little at the money that they gave him. Time will tell whether or not he earns it, but if he can be efficient and play the kind of game that he’s capable of, it’ll make the Dolphins a lot more bearable to watch this season.
But whatever the case may be, it’s certainly going to make for a very, very interesting Week 1, though Pennington starting against his former team won’t garner as many headlines as a certain #4 standing on the opposite sideline.
