Chad Henne is hearing same boos Drew Brees heard

Remember way back when Drew Brees was on the San Diego Chargers? Through the first three seasons of his NFL career he certainly was not the franchise quarterback San Diego had drafted him to be. In fact his performance for the team through those first three seasons was enough for the Chargers to pick Eli Manning and then flip him for Phillip Rivers in the 2004 NFL draft. We all know the rest of the story, Brees turns his career around, goes to New Orleans in free agency and the rest is history. Well now we sit here in 2011 and look at Chad Henne with the Miami Dolphins and can’t help but ask if he has the potential for a Drew Brees type career turnaround? Looking at their career statistics, their numbers are not that dissimilar through their first three seasons. Between Brandon Marshall, Davone Bess, Anthony Fasano, and now Reggie Bush there are pieces there that should make Henne’s life easier. Also if you factor in the fact that Jake Long is protecting his blind side, if things stay the same this year you have to believe Miami will make a move to address the quarterback position and quiet the boos coming from the fans there, unfortunately for Tony Sparano, it will probably be too late.

NFL Mock Draft: Supplemental Edition

Now that the inevitable Jim Tressel resignation has come down, the next in line to take the fall for the transgressions of Ohio State could be quarterback Terrelle Pryor. Already suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season, it might be best for all parties involved if Pryor just go ahead and call it a college career, especially amid reports that the NCAA has launched an independent probe of Pryor himself. Assuming he would even be allowed to play in 2011, it would be interesting to see what kind of reaction Pryor would get from the Buckeye faithful. It’s not hard to imagine Pryor becoming the lightning rod for those angry with the Tressel exit, as he has been the most noteworthy of the athletes involved in the scandal. There is no need for Pryor to delay his NFL career any further and all would be best served if he were to enter the supplemental draft. With that in mind we take a look at some potential landing spots for him.

Washington Redskins: The Donovan McNabb experiment has failed miserably and with John Beck or Rex Grossman in line to start heading into the season, many Redskins fans looked for Mike Shanahan and company to take a quarterback early in the draft. Frustrated when that didn’t come to fruition, the ‘Skins could get another chance to address the position getting a dynamic athlete at a potentially lower price.

Arizona Cardinals: A team that has all the pieces to contend, especially in a weak NFC West, except at quarterback. If you read the tea leaves though, the Cardinals are most likely waiting for the ongoing lockout to be resolved and to make a play for Eagles backup Kevin Kolb who would be more ready to step in and make the Cards a viable squad.

Minnesota Vikings: A veteran laden team that is also in position to win now. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see McNabb end up here, however, if they could grab Pryor at a discount and develop him behind Donovan for a few years, Leslie Frazier could kill two birds with one stone.

Miami Dolphins: Like Redskins fans, Dolphins fans waited and waited during the draft for their team to address the quarterback position. The coaching staff and front office gave a vote of confidence to incumbent Chad Henne by instead trying to surround him with some talent on the offensive side of the ball. Pryor could be a nice fit in a run-first Miami scheme.

Buffalo Bills: When it was obvious that the Bills had no shot at drafting Cam Newton, they shifted their attention in the draft to rebuilding their defense. Pryor and Newton are similar in stature and athleticism and the Bills might be hard pressed to not spend a third round pick on someone they could tool their offense around.

Steelers vs. Dolphins: the rest of the story

I understand the Miami Dolphins feel like they were robbed of a win yesterday, and the whole incident has made for great fodder on sports radio and websites today (especially the report that Gene Steratore was somehow in on the fix). Let's take a closer look at the situation though. On the play in question Ben Roethlisberger fumbles into the endzone with 2:30 left in the game. For the sake of argument let's say the play is called a fumble, Miami recovers in the endzone and gets the ball on their own 20 yard line after the resulting touchback. What happens after that is anyone's guess. If you look at the game though, Pittsburgh still had all of their timeouts left, plus the 2 minute warning, meaning the Dolphins would have had to get at least 1 first down to win the game, possibly 2. The Dolphins would've most likely been running the ball in that situation to try and force the Steelers to use their timeouts. Neither team was running the ball particularly well yesterday, meaning the probability of the Steelers getting the ball back in relatively good field position was high. From there all the Steelers would need to take the lead would be a field goal, but how likely is it that Ben Roethlisberger would lead a 4th quarter comeback? Maybe all the Dolphins fans crying foul would like to take the time to ask the Arizona Cardinals about that.