Why does Chad Henne struggle in the NFL?
I'm not sure if this has been discussed before (and obviously please delete this thread if it has), but why does Chad Henne struggle so much in the NFL?
I just came across an article at Jaguars' blog Big Cat Country that ripped on him, talking about how easy it will be for Blake Bortles' to beat him out of the starting job:
The best case for Bortles' rookie season is for him to firmly establish himself as the starter over Henne in the preseason. It won't be hard to do.
I've been reading stuff like this for a long time now. People just rip him to shreds.
I mean, we know what he did here, but since he's been in the NFL everybody hates the guy's guts. Case in point, via Jaguars blog Big Cat Country:
Why do people act like Miami Dolphins Chad Henne never existed? He’s never been anything but below mediocre in the NFL. Even with talent.
I always thought Henne had the potential to be a franchise QB in the NFL. Can anyone who follows the NFL closely weigh in on this?
Put Henne on a great team and he'd be remembered as a good QB. He's a run-of-the-mill average NFL QB who has played on terrible teams. He's never going to be great, but you could do a lot worse.
And what you remember of Griese is a RS Senior.
Kind of a difference.
Henne was a completely different QB his last year than he was his freshman year when we just ran the ball until we got down 14 points and then chucked it up to Braylon to get back into the game.
Henne managed his final game vs. UF pretty damn well I'd say.
If there was ever an "offense" that I'd love Michigan to run as a "THIS IS MICHIGAN" offense.
It would be the one from this game. I wish I could show Hoke and Nuss this and say "Guys, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT TO BE."
Now obviously we need all of the good players this team had, but this offense had some spread, some power, some run, some pass, it was just an offense that I really enjoyed watching.
We only ran it for this one game, but damn did it look good.
I wish when people said "Michigan Offense" like they do for Alabama or Oregon or Oklahoma or WVU or Arizona or Notre Dame or Stanford or USC or OSU...this (the '08 UF game) is what they meant.
I wish this offense was our identity. I think we could get every type of kid (except the Denard type QBs) to come play in this offense. In fact, Denard may be the only player since this game that doesn't fit this offense. Gardner and Forcier do, Threet and Sheridan do, the short slot buggers do...sigh, Mallett sure did.
I've never really thought of Chad Henne as a "gunslinger." He's never been the type of quarterback to take a ton of huge risks. Devin Gardner is a gunslinger. Tate Forcier was a gunslinger. Guys who take risks with the football to try to make something happen. Henne threw/throws interceptions, but . . . he's a quarterback, and all quarterbacks throw interceptions. If Henne's a gunslinger, so is just about any major college or NFL quarterback.
I've always wondered this! Getting ready to spend an hour reading all of the responses in this thread . . .
I thought they did a very below average job with Henne.
If you remember (when he wasn't hurt), we always played scared...we were conservative and didn't open things up until we had to. It was mind-numbing at times.
His freshman year was somewhat understandable, but we didn't even develop him then, we ran until we got down 14 and then went Hail Braylon the entire 4th qtr to get back into games.
We tried to protect Henne rather than develop him. That was a mistake.
Chad Henne's career is the reason All Michigan fans love that '08 Cap One game vs. UF and all of us hate that game too.
Because we waited 4 years and we finally saw what that offense could've been when we actually used all of the weapons. Henne, Hart, Manningham, Arrington all had HUGE games in a free flowing offense that wasn't all Carr-conservative. We were aggressive from the opening drive and if not for 2 Hart fumbles inside the 5 we hang 55 points on the mighty Gators.
Henne was more than capable, but we never took the reigns off until the end.
Again, I don't think he was ever going to be a 1st Team All-American and first overall pick in the draft. But he was capable of winning games for us and didn't need to be babied his entire career.
In the NFL, he's not going to win games on his own, but put him on a good team and he's not going to lose you games either. He just hasn't been on a good team. Again, it's not like Brian Griese was that much more of a QB. He played on great teams in the NFL.
You can't distill it down to one skill, but far and away one of the most important skills for a QB is accuracy. I don't think there's any doubt who's got the stronger arm between Henne and Brady.
Continuing with accuracy... rarely in Michigans big games did Henne show much accuracy... quite the opposite. It seemed like he just got too uptight against OSU and in the Rose Bowl against USC. Yeah, the opponents talent had something to do with it, but there were more missed wide open throws in those games than we'd usually see out of Henne.
Nice wins against Penn St and MSU, but honestly, those really weren't the big games '04 to '07. OSU and the Rose Bowl.
Henne has had a fine NFL career for his talent level. Big arm, inconsistent accuracy and decision making. Prone to getting uptight in a tough game against the best competition (not always, just often).
I hope he lasts another 7 years with his health and some more quality games.
Who needs a really good o-line and big recievers. I don't think that he's had that combination in his pro career yet.
Also, he just seems like one of those guys that makes a couple of mistakes a game. He throws a good ball, but sometimes he just throws it to the wrong place.
I think the Titans would actually be a terrific place for him to play next season. Their O-Line should be fantastic, and I like their young wide outs.
He's only better than 99% of all QBs who have ever played the game, not 99.874%.
My initial thought is "because he's on the Jaguars" but in reality it's because some QBs just don't pan out. but it could be that he's in the wrong system, or he doesn't have a go-to receiver, or he's not being developed like he should. He's what, 27 or so? Still plenty of time for a couple good years in his career.
The success of a quarterback at any level is a combination of a huge number of factors. Coaching, system fit, Oline/WR talent, etc. I feel like we can't dismiss every QB who hasn't had success in the pros as necessarily a bad player.
I personally feel Henne is a below average NFL QB, but that opinion isn't based on his inability to lead the dolphins or jaguars to successful seasons. I don't know if any QB could make that happen.
One needs only to know that while at Michigan, Chad was surrounded by far superior talent than that which he faced in nearly every game. Simply go back to his last game played for Michigan. For the first and only game I can recall under Lloyd's tutelage, DeBord was allowed to implement a game plan that fit out talent perfectly. We had the best LT in fb and a slower,but tremendously talented version of Barry Sanders. Coupling what "might" be coming out of the backfield with two tremendously talented wideout providing the bread for a more than capable slot and TE, we witnessed a perfect scheme to utlilize Chad's biggest asset. That being, of course his ability to get the long ball within arms reach of those wideouts who almost always won the battle with good, but not necessarily NFL caliber dbs. *Has Chad ever been surrounded with the talent he had in AA when compared to the higher level necessary to mimize the effectiveness of the talent that he faces weekly? That answer is obvious. One only needs to look at the two qbs generally considered the two greatest qbs in the "League" over the past 15 to 16 years and realize gifted qbs running an offense built to maximize their talent are going to experience far greater succss than those who do not enjoy this luxury.
While we're at it, how come Drew Henson couldn't do anything in the NFL?
He didn't stick with football, so missed all that potential development. If he had the ability to take that time away from football then go be an NFL QB, then he really really should have stuck with football.
7 years drawing an nfl pay check. My guess is he is already out performing his fellow late second roung picks historically and by the time his career is done he will have done so by miles.
- todd collins
I think he is what he is. He never really did more than become a decent college QB. He had a strong arm, but inconsistent accuracy. In college you can rifle it in there between two college safties, in the NFL you have to be accurate too. Plus, he just hasn't had consistent playing time.