Yesterday I used some of Henne's basic stats to help me argue against the Dolphins relying on him next season, and the day before I listed out more reasons against him. I will provide links below if you guys haven't had a chance to read either.
Today I am taking a more in-depth look at Henne last season and then I will explain some other reasons why he just isn't reliable enough.I hope you guys have enjoyed this series. For those of you who haven't, I apologize, but I was getting frustrated hearing people who thought Henne should get another chance. There are plenty of other quarterbacks that are available for Miami to go after that can do what he can't, so there is no excuse for the Dolphins to rely on Chad "robot" Henne any longer.
Now, for the numbers.
Chad Henne got progressively worse as the season went on. He actually started the season off pretty well in 2010. In September he threw a pretty respectably passer rating of 88.1, and he threw more touchdowns than interceptions with 3 TDs and only 1 INT.
But he only got worse as the season went on. From October to January his passer rating decreased each month. I have listed out his passer rating, interceptions thrown, and touchdowns thrown by month below:
- October: 79 rating, 6 interceptions, 5 touchdowns
- November: 78.1 rating, 5 interceptions, 3 touchdowns
- December: 66.9 rating, 6 interceptions, 4 touchdowns
- January (the Patriots game): 25.8 rating, 1 interception, 0 touchdowns
Probably the most revealing statistic for Henne, though, is his fourth quarter passer rating. During just the fourth quarters of each game last season, Henne had a pathetic 55.7 passer rating. He threw a whopping 8 interceptions and only 3 touchdowns, and he played worse in the fourth quarter than he did in any other quarter. You can blame coaching all you want, but there are some things you can't coach, and one of those things is the ability to play well late in games, which Henne obviously isn't capable of doing.
Something interesting I found is that Henne was bad in second quarters as well. His second quarter passer rating was 68.7 and he had 7 interceptions to only 3 touchdowns. Not only is he bad at finishing a game, he is also bad at finishing up the first half. He played well in the first and third quarters, but he was terrible in the second and fourth, and that is a puzzling statistic to me. It's almost like as soon as any real pressure got to him, he just started messing up.
Further reinforcing Henne's lack of an ability to finish are his numbers from the first half of the season compared to the second half. His first half passer rating was 78.2, but in the second half of the season he had a 71.1 rating. His completion percentage dropped by about 5% in the second half, too, and he threw 30 less yards per game. He just can't finish, and his numbers have consistently reflected that.
The above statistics are the ones that have really let me know Henne isn't the answer and never will be. He shows no ability to rally the team and bring them back (or keep them ahead) late in games.
I would like to quote my good friend Riverdog (his real name is Gary), and I believe most of you know him because he is a frequent commenter on this blog who provides extremely valuable insight. This is a quote from one of his comments, and I believe it sums up a lot of what I am trying to say:
"With any football team no matter what happens the players look to their QB to will them to a victory. I never had that (oh my Henne is going to win this game for us) even though we stunk up the field during the game. I don't think any of us had that feeling this year."And he is exactly right. Were any of you guys ever confident that Henne was going to be able to lead the team to a win late in a game this year? I know I wasn't. Most of the time I was worried that he was going to be the one who messed everything up, and not the one who saved the day.
One's confidence in a quarterback's ability late in games is a great gauge of whether or not they can be successful in the NFL. The great quarterbacks will put the team on their shoulders and put together game-winning drives, which Chad Henne can't do, nor has he shown any indications that he will ever be able to.
Henne also hasn't shown me any signs that he is a leader or is capable of leading the team. Heck, his backup was one of the team captains. I know that Pennington was an experienced veteran, but you can't just allow your teammates to respect and follow the person who you are supposed to be in front of more than they respect and follow you. It just doesn't work like that.
I cannot stress enough that I understand the playcalling wasn't doing Henne any favors, but he still was never able to take the team on his shoulders and will the Dolphins to a victory. He never showed us any signs of leadership that made us hopeful about what he is capable of.
The worst part of all of this is that Henne didn't seem to care. He showed no emotion, whatsoever. If I were to ask a Miami Dolphins fan to picture Chad Henne's face in their mind, 99% of those fans would have pictured him with that blank stare that he always had. Miami could have had a nice lead against the Oakland Raiders and Henne would still have that same stare, or they could have just lost to the lowly Cleveland Browns the following week and his facial expression wouldn't have changed a bit.
It is frustrating that we are in this situation less than a year after we all thought he was going to be something special, but that is the NFL for you, and hopefully the Dolphins will be able to move on and be successful soon.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post, and feel free to email me or leave a comment.
Here are the links to the other two posts of this series like I promised:
Post 1: Chad Henne Better Not Be The Miami Dolphins Starter
Post 2: Further Proof That The Miami Dolphins Must Not Rely On Chad Henne Next Year
Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you guys soon.
