This season I am not that interested in the continuing saga of Ben Roethlisberger or Brett Favre. I am not interested in the battle to be the best between Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees. I am not even interested in seeing if Sam Bradford is going to make an impact in his rookie season in St. Louis. No, I want to see what Chad Henne really can do.
I am not a Miami Dolphin fan either. I have no doubt the New York Jets or the New England Patriots are going to the take the division. The few times I watched the Dolphins play last season I became a firm believer in the former Big Ten quarterback.
He had the arm strength and touch, despite scout’s insistence he lacked the ability to put the ball in the right spot. I figure he threw the ball in an open air stadium in Michigan during bitter cold winters. Experts who doubted his touch obviously failed to take that weather into account. My general rule is take the doubts for Big Ten quarterback with a grain of salt as well as the praise of any quarterback who played for Florida.
Of course, even if he has the right stuff, he needs the team to believe in him and run the offense through him to develop into a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback. Last season he took the reigns of the offense as the Wildcat became more and more suspect. Henne even threw more than 50 times in a game twice in the last five weeks of the 2009 season.
Henne needs a real receiver to be the quarterback I believe he could and he gets a real number one target thanks to a contract dispute in Denver. Brandon Marshall instantly becomes an instant 100-reception threat in 2010. If Marshall can manage to catch 1010 passes with Kyle Orton (yes I know, another Big Ten product) at the helm, he should be able to do the same with Henne behind center.
However, Tight End Anthony Fasano, Wide Receiver Brian Hartline, and Wide Receiver Greg Camarillo are not going to take any defensive attention from Marshall. At the very least Camarillo has a great set of hands, which is invaluable in the red zone.
While Marshall is not good enough alone to make this a top tier hands unit, the running back tandem of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams helps open the offense up. They were the story to start the season in 2009, but they are a great compliment for a potential Henne-Marshall connection. With the opposing defense being forced to respect, Henne will have be able to utilize the play action to hit Marshall on deep routes. Really this offense could be far scarier than most believe.
Henne is the young, unknown quarterback to most of the league and its fans. Last season he showed he had the stuff with a sub par receiving corps and a offensive coordinator that never gave young man his complete confidence. Like so many Big Ten quarterbacks (including the AFC East’s own Tom Brady), I see him proving himself this season and quickly establishing himself as one of the 15, if not 10, best quarterbacks in the league. Basically, the Miami Dolphins search for Dan Marino’s replacement is finally over.