Blame It on the Henne: QB No Competition Yet

Pennington still giving Fins the best chance to win

By JANIE CAMPBELL

Updated 11:50 AM EDT, Tue, Aug 11, 2009

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For all the talk of Chad Henne pushing Chad Pennington this season, it's not working out that way yet in Davie.

The Dolphins' wookiee-armed sophomore has had some good moments, particularly showing off in play-action, but yesterday afternoon's two-minute drill proved the competition isn't even close: Henne had four straight incompletions and required a diving catch from Patrick Turner to get his fifth attempt on the books. It's hard to make a QB battle out of "rarely drives the team into reasonable scoring position" -- unless, of course, you're talking Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman.

But this is the Dolphins, not [UM seasons redacted], and Henne's struggle wasn't an anomaly: that morning, he'd missed three straight in 11-on-11s before finally managing to connect with Patrick Cobbs. Rookie safety Chris Clemons picked him off twice and nearly earned a third. Other adjectives: "shaky," "underthrown," "Michiganish."

It's no time to panic; after all, this is only the second week of the kid's second camp, and he's certainly far above the unfortunate Pat White. It's just that spring's big fan clamoring to have Henne replace Pennington this season was entirely premature: Pennington clearly still gives the Dolphins their best chance to win (or at least survive the 2009 schedule).

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For all his upside, Henne is still a mystery-flavored Dum Dum, an unknown quantity. Sure, the arm is there, but the mind doesn't seem to have caught up quite yet. That's why Tony Sparano's plan to get him game experience in the pre-season -- but not start -- is the right move.

Anyone at practice will have seen that for themselves, even if they couldn't repeat it.

Janie Campbell suggests Parcells fill the Bubble with grow lamps. Her work has appeared in irreverent sports sites around the Internet.