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?
who's to argue with mGoBlog's first and only 1 Million Point Guy??!
I personally miss Chad Henne and his arm audibles... Penn St 2005 game was best game ive ever been to.. Henne to Manningham was priceless.
Because it's extremely difficult to be a good QB in the NFL. That's really about it.
Chad was never an amazing QB even while at Michigan. He put up very good numbers and I loved having him as the QB on our team, don't get me wrong. But he was never the star of the offense, and he had a LOT of talent around him too.
He's also played for teams that had average to below average talent, even while at Miami. He's not the type of QB that's going to make everyone around him much better, but he is the type of QB that can play with talent.
He's a solid backup QB in the NFL. That still puts him at the top .01% of QBs in the world. (48% of statistics are made up on the spot BTW)
made some jaw dropping throws when he was at Michigan. While he was at Michigan, I though barring injury that he could be a very good NFL QB.
Oh no doubt, he made some sick throws in college. The one I remember the most is actually the Capital One Bowl, pretty sure first touchdown of the game where he rifled it into a super small window between the saftey and corner.
However, consistency was never a strong point of his. Tacopants was a regularly targeted reciever for him.
Right on point yellowdart
He's just not that accurate a passer. At Michigan he was a 58-60% passer all 4 years. I understand that he was in an "NFL-style" vertical passing offence, but if you look at those years, the top QB's were routinely in the 65-70% realm. If you take the top 5 in 2006 (Henne's Jr year) passer rating - Brennan, Beck, J. Russel, Palko, Kolb (I think they all at least played in the NFL) the lowest completion % was 67.6%. It's far from a perfect stat and has loads of dependency on scheme, protection, receiver talent, etc., but it's one reason he's struggled.
Part two of my theory - Henne was always seen as a pretty finished product coming out of HS. The advanced training he got made him ready to start as a freshman at Michigan. But, it also left him with little room to grow. That's why his numbers didn't improve appreciably over a very nice career.
Fast forward to the NFL, and he's yet to have a season with more TD than INT. It doesn't help that he's been on bad teams, but that's a lack of accuracy (and poor decisions as others have pointed out).
If Henne was born a decade later and played in the Okhahoma State Air Raid or some other system designed to the strengths of a pass-first offense, he'd be talked about differently. Instead the guy was stuck with Mike friggin DeBord for his upperclassman years, right when he was peaking as a QB.
don't think he has ever really had a good team around him. When I watch him play I really don't come away thinking he stinks or that he is no good, but that he is just an average quarterback for average or bad teams. I don't think he is very personable, dating back to his days at Michigan. He is not a guy that really gives you any reason to "like" him even despite being on bad teams, so consequently he takes a lot of shit.
I don't know if the fact that UM never won big with him was really much of his fault. I think more of it had to do with the coaching and injuries. His freshmen year they went 9-3 and won the Big Ten. Lost at ND in his second or third game when the UM offense went ultra conservative. Perfect example: 1st and goal inside the ND 10 right before half and UM runs the 3 times and ends up kicking a FG. Lost at OSU. UM jumps out to a 14-7 lead after marching down the field twice with the running game and short passes. OSU switches up their defense by crowding the line of scrimmage and calling more blitzes. UM's offense doesn't adjust until they were down 27-14 in the second half. The other loss was to Texas in the Rose Bowl and Henne actually played really good.
His sophomore year was marred by injuries to the team - most notably Jake Long missing most of the season.
His junior year they went 11-2. Not sure you can put to much blame on Henne for that loss. They then lost to USC in Rose Bowl when the UM didn't abandon their conservative offense until they were down 2 TD's in the second half.
Henne was injured a good part of his senior year.
No Taco Pants
He plays great, then makes incredibly poor decisions. This is because he doesn't read defenses very well. Call great plays for him, give him guys that get open, and he'll hit them because he has a great arm and throws with accuracy. But nobody gets that every week in the NFL. When the defense confuses him the wheels come off, and that happens too often.
This is a good point. Of course I thought Henne would be the next Tom Brady - I guess I forgot how very very rare Tom Brady is! But Henne has still had a better career than lots of other quarterbacks.
I looked it up for the sake of curiosity, though I understand that your point is that in the history of the draft there have been far greater busts that have been drafted much higher.
Still, in the 2008 draft, only 3 QBs were drafted before Henne, who was taken at #57 in the second round by (of course) Miami (NTM... but still kinda that Miami). Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco were the only first rounders, Ryan being the third overall pick. I wouldn't call either of those guys busts by any means, and certainly not the man with the ring. If anything in Ryan's case I'd call the Falcons a bust of a franchise, but not necessarily their QB, despite the high pick.
The other pick before Henne was actually taken by Green Bay the very pick before him, and was definitely a bust. It was Brian Brohm (that guy from Louisville who won the Orange Bowl over Wake Forest in '07... because when I think BCS, I think Wake Forest). He never played a down for GB, who downgraded him to the practice squad after a year before Buffalo signed him. He started two games ever in the NFL, lost both by at least 4 touchdowns, and only has any significance at all by being the guy who gave T.O. his 1,000th career reception (which is kind of a big deal if you care about T.O, which means only T.O. cares about that). After not being resigned by anyone in 2011, he went to the UFL, though he tried out for the Lions, 49ers, and Saints in 2012. The last two seasons he has spent in the CFL, though he hasn't played a down due to injury, and still has yet to record a win in any game in which he played (as the starter or not) in professional football.
Verdict: Your statement that QBs were drafted higher than Henne yet produced very little can be proven even when looking at the 2008 Draft (even though it was only one pick before Henne). Congratulations.
he's getting ready to enter his 7th season in the NFL (some have been as a starter, some as a backup). That's pretty darn good. There's probably way more QB's that spend less then 7 years in the NFL than QB's who spend 7 or more seasons in the NFL.
Is he a franchise QB? Not even close but there are only a handful of those anyway and the list of franchise QB's doesn't change much from year to year.
There are 32 starting jobs.
Of these teams, 4 division winners and 2 wild cards in each conference make the playoffs. Even that isn't sufficient - recall Mark Sanchez did make the conference final two years running and most Jets fans are calling his time average at best. So that leaves what as criteria for a successful career? Winning the super bowl, playing in the super bowl, taking multiple teams to the super bowl or conference game? That pretty much whittles the whole field down to only 3-5 QBs who are "successful".
So many factors go into why a QB becomes great - right coach, good offense, great defense, running game, great receivers, right era (when the rules favored his style of play). Chad Henne has made it 7 years and it will not be surprising if he can make it to 10 years in a brutal game where everyone is judged by what they have done lately.
I hope he does well and whether he starts or not, he has actually won already surviving this long.
And he likely won't be done after that.
A friend of the family was a backup QB for the Packers and later the Raiders. He said the best job in the world is 3rd string NFL backup QB. You still get paid well, you won't get hurt, you get to be part of the NFL scene, you get to play once in a while, and you can do it for fifteen years.
Barring injury, Henne will be somebody's backup or 3rd string QB for many years.
The whole paragraph from that blog on the best case scenario:
"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. He also needs to force Caldwell's hand into prematurely starting their plan for him as the teams quarterback. Some, like Caldwell, think he should sit. Personally, I think he should play early because that is the best way to fix his issues. Bortles is the quarterback of the future, so I don't think there's much use in putting it off."
While I appreciate this guy's optimism for Bortles, I think he has already forgotten history and wants it to repeat itself. Apparently he's already forgotten how Blaine Gabbert turned out (JAX 1st round pick in 2011, thrust in to action early, got beat up as a rookie--sacked 40 times--and ended up a huge bust). Even if Henne struggles, there's a reason why Jacksonville doesn't want to start Bortles right off the bat and this is it--they don't want to repeat the mistake.
I agree with the previous poster that Henne hasn't been surrounded by a lot of talent in the NFL. Jacksonville was terrible last season and Henne wasn't even expected to start. Gabbert got injured (but prior had thrown just 1 TD to 7 INTs) and then the team opted to start Henne over him when he returned. Chad did what he could with what he had to work with (which wasn't much), but ultimately he's seen as a stopgap QB. He'll be given every opportunity this season to start and try to turn it around before Bortles takes over as the Jags QB of the future.
He's too nervous in the pocket... when I watch him I see a guy who is extremely anxious to get rid of the ball... he just has the jitters
Some of it is just math--not all of the 32 teams can be great, and the ones that aren't great have lots of problems that then get blamed on the QB. Put Henne as the starter of the '76 Steelers or the '13 Seahawks and he'd look pretty good.
Saying he has character issues is a huge reach. Henne is largely a quiet guy who has stayed out of trouble and has avoided the spotlight. The comment about Tebow was a rare blip.
Henne has been on some bad teams with mediocre talent at WR and OL. He hasn't really been given a chance to be a good NFL quarterback, but he hasn't done a great deal with his opportunities, either.
I've seen a few things with Henne. First of all, he looks like he's in a hurry to get rid of the ball. Second, he's not extremely accurate. Third, he doesn't have a great deal of touch, which has always been an issue. Fourth, he always tended to lock onto his main receiver and struggles to go through his progressions.
He has a strong arm, and he could probably be a decent QB for a team that runs the ball and plays great defense. If you look at the Baltimore Ravens of the early 2000's, I think Henne could have succeeded in a system like that. Unfortunately, the trend in the NFL is to have a guy who can make plays with his feet (Henne can't) or who can throw the ball 40-50 times a game (Henne's not equipped for that, either).
Henne is a 1990's quarterback in 2014. It's just not a great fit.
I think this is an accurate and fair assesment:
"I've seen a few things with Henne. First of all, he looks like he's in a hurry to get rid of the ball. Second, he's not extremely accurate. Third, he doesn't have a great deal of touch, which has always been an issue. Fourth, he always tended to lock onto his main receiver and struggles to go through his progressions."
You just needed to follow up with, "But other than that...."
What a idiotic comment to make. Time to call out Jake Long, MIke Hart, and Lloyd Carr too then for having no substance in character. Just plain dumb.
You didn't catch the 2004 Michigan/Michigan State game where he brought us back from 17 in the 4th, or the 2005 Penn State game where he threw a last second pass to Manningham to win it, or the 2006 "Game of the Century" , or the 2008 Capital One Bowl game. Or the 10,000 yards in his career, the 87 TD's to 37INTs or beating MSU all four years. I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch, but yah you're right - Chad def. no substance of character.
The greatest irony of your post is you spew that crap and then say he comes across as small minded.
If he had only hit a wide open Manningham on our second drive...sigh.
think Crable is a bit more culpable...
You do realize that pot story was made up by a high school kid masquerading as an 'insider' and a professional model, right?
"Here is some smoke where there may be fire.....
For one, he was the QB or leader during the Horror., which tells me there's a decent possibility that he has no substance in character. Word is the team was high on pot.."
As a matter of board etiquette, that last sentence comes from a story written by a person whose existence is not to be acknowledged here. Please do not go there.
Was worth sacrificing one of my points in the interest of a downvote.
two major things holding him back:
1. He's not that good.
2. It's hard to be that good.
Also, I don't think many people hate/think about Chad Henne. Sounds like your Michigan bias to me.
probably the same reason he wasn't a Heisman candidate at Michigan. Dude's inconsistent. He opens the 2011 season with about 500 yards of total offense against the Patriots in a close loss, then proceeds to go 12/30 and grind to a halt in the redzone the next week against the Texans. Inconsistency makes you a good backup option but not so much a starter.
and seems to be a decent guy. I don't think he's super bright and he makes a lot of bad decisions on the field. He's capable of doing some great things (see his 416-yard outing against the Pats in 2011) and equally capable of mediocrity. All NFL QBs have ups and downs; the talent level in the league is just too good for QBs to succeed on bad days. He's never had anywhere close to the talent advantage he had for four years at Michigan.
is too robotic in terms of movement and doesn't operate within the pocket that you wanted to see from a QB. He struggles to feel pressure around him and often takes unneccessary sacks. Henne isn't the best decision maker and struggles at muddled pocket. He isn't accurate due to his front leg locking up upon throwing thus causing the ball to sail on him.
He's a backup QB at best in the NFL and that's not a bad thing. He can spot start, but cannot be counted to be a long term starting QB.
He has always been more of a game manager with a huge arm.
He hasn't exactly had good teams or receivers to throw to. No one else on the teams he has been on have done any better. HIs numbers have never been terrible, as he has averaged over 200 ypg in every season he has had significant playing time. I think the biggest problem is his INT rate, which at 3.3% is unacceptable. Even gunslinger Stafford is only at 2.9%. Then againJay Cutler and Eli Manning are at 3.4% so....
You know, of the 4 QBs drafted in the 2nd round of the 08 NFL draft, Henne was the only one who actually stuck around and produced.
Anyone who wonders aloud why Henne "sucks" could ask the same question of Andy Dalton, Christian Ponder, Tim Tebow, Blaine Gabbert, Max Hall, and countless other college passers who were drafted both ahead and behind of Henne (a 2nd round selection) and produced far less than he has in the NFL.
Henne came into the NFL in 2008. He's still there now. That's longer and probably more of an impact than Matt Leinart, Colt McCoy, or Vince Young made, for example.
He's doing something right. The jacksonville coaching staff wants Henne to stick around, even now.
I wish I was able to struggle in the NFL like Chad Henne has for the last few years...
Does he "struggle?" He has been either that starter or a #2 QB for his entire time in the league, this fall will be his 7th season. He has never put up a full season's worth of great numbers, but he's never looked awful over a full season either. For every terrible game he's had, he's also had a great game. He's not going to be a franchise QB, but barring injury he'll have a job in the league for the next half decade based on talent and experience alone. He's done a lot better than a number of guys who were drafted higher than he was.
but struggles with decision making. I don't think he knows how to read defenses all that well, and he seems to throw INT's at the most crucial times. One minute he looks great, then the next minute he looks like a disaster. He's simply too inconsistent. He was like that at Michigan, and still like that in the NFL.
Buggy software.
No doubt guys like Henne or even Brady Quinn would've been better if they were on better teams.
Is Henne that much worse than Brian Greise? No. His teams have been awful and Brian played on very good teams.
None of these guys are franchise changers, but they can win games if they're on decent teams.