“Miami Vice”

With yesterday’s news that Chad Pennington is out for the year with a shoulder injury, Miami’s season effectively came to an abrupt close. The Dolphins who fell to 0-3 on Sunday, now will have to face perhaps the league’s toughest schedule without their top signal caller. The Dolphins who started out the year at Atlanta, home against the Colts, and then at San Diego, now get a pair of home games against the resurgent Jets and Bills, who are both playing their best football in years. The Dolphins still have the Saints, Texans, Steelers, and Patriots twice on their schedule (not to mention facing the Jets and the Bills on the road). This season is quickly shaping into a disaster. Just one year removed from the postseason, the Dolphins are looking at going back into the AFC East cellar and a potential top-10 draft pick come next April with Chad Henne at the helm.

I know there are those Dolphins/football fans who probably think that losing Pennington isn’t such a big deal. But facts are facts, and the truth of the matter is Chad Pennington is a good quarterback and a proven winner. Any time he starts 10 or more games in a season, his team makes the playoffs. Any time that he hasn’t started at least 10 games (since he became a starter in 2002) his team has finished last or tied for last in the AFC East. Now no one is ever going to mistake Pennington for Manning or Brady, but at the same time they won’t mistake Henne for Pennington as well. I have absolutely no confidence in Chad Henne being the answer in Miami. I know he is a Parcells guy, and the “heir apparent”, but I just don’t see it with Henne. I’ve never thought that he is anything more than a solid back up in this league, and definitely not a starter on a playoff caliber team. Henne just doesn’t seem to make quick reads or good decisions when he has the ball in his hands. And if his performance Sunday against the Chargers was an indication of things to come, its going to be a long season in Miami this year. Unfortunately for Miami fans its going to get much worse before it gets better. I think Miami will finish with a top-10 pick, and will probably be in the market for a new “heir apparent” come next April. 

With that being said, there are a lot of other very surprising 0-3 or 1-2 teams in the NFL right now.  Which teams can turn their season around and which teams should start preparing for the April draft?