Henne Already Turning Heads

It was the first day of his career as a Miami Dolphin and Chad is already being noticed. This is an excerpt from South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Omar Kelly:

New Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne is loud. Ultra loud!

His voice can he heard all over the Dolphins practice field. It carries, and that's a good thing. Let's just put it this way. I heard every word he said behind center and never heard anything from the other quarterback in this camp.

I've heard rave reviews about Henne's leadership ability, and if his command of the huddle is a sampling of that, Henne shouldn't have a problem gaining his teammates attention. He throws a quick out pass, and seemed to be fairly accurate on day one, but his receivers didn't catch many of what appeared to be "ouch" passes.

Coach Tony Sparano said he was "pleasantly surprised" by Henne, and reiterated Henne, Josh McCown and John Beck will have a "quarterback competition" when training camp opens. Whoever gets it done will be the starter. So basically, there are no favorites.

"At the end of this we're going to find out who the best quarterback is," Sparano said.

Move the offense and score and you'll be a favorite until you stop doing it. Then they'll likely say, "Next" and move on to the next in line.

But here is a hint of what they are looking for.

"With a quarterback it's all about what he does in the huddle. It's how he takes control," Sparano said. "I've been in some situations where we've gone out there and the quarterback quite honestly couldn't get the play out of his mouth on day one. Chad was very good that way today. He took control of the huddle and managed the team fine at the line of scrimmage."

Don't worry. This is already ordered.

Loud. Taking control. Leadership. HARD passes (more on that in a bit). "Pleasantly surprised". I am going out on a limb right now. Mark it down that on May 2nd, 2008, I, Joey Mays, said that former Wilson superstar Chad Henne would be the Dolphins starter come opening day of the 2008 NFL season. Sure I am biased. But I know Chad even more so than these writers. He will compete and learn fast and the fan base and coaches will realize he give the Dolphins the best chance to win. Chad will start versus the Jets on September 7th. Write it down.

OK and now back to the hard throws. Or more specifically his "ouch" passes. This is a true story from my senior year at Wilson (Chad was a junior).

It was early in the season (I can't remember if it was still three-a-days or the first week or two of the season). I had been injured during practice earlier and wasn't participating. I was limping around helping the coaches clean up a few practice areas. There was a commotion down on the main practice field. I ignored it and kept cleaning up. When I walked down to the main practice field I heard a story that would disgust a lot of people.

The athletic trainers told me that one of Chad's passes had broken a kids finger off. Seriously. Clean break of the finger, dangling underneath his hand. I didn't believe it. Then a coach told me the same story. And this was the coach that came to the kids aid right after it had happened. SO it was true. Disgustingly true. The coach said when the kid walked over to him and he looked at his hand he started to look around the field for the finger. He couldn't see it. The kid actually had it tucked behind his hand while he was holding it. CLEAR OFF HIS HAND. A small amount of skin was just holding it there. That is one hard throw! Obviously the ball had to hit him at the right point on his finger but still. Chad freakin' broke a kids finger off (basically). I never envied any of the Wilson receivers or Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant, Marion Manningham, or Adrian Arrington. Playing catch with Chad was enough. No thank you.

Yeah I'd call his throws "ouch" passes.