Kentucky Jet Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Continuing our Know Your Role Series, today we look at Quarterback Chad Pennington. No one questions his smarts, instinct, work ethic, ability to find open targets or his ability to run a system, but the physical aspect of playing in the NFL has taken it’s toll on the Jets’ starting Quarterback, who just played in his first full season since being drafted. Over the past few seasons, Chad’s injury status has run paralell to the fate of the team. Over the course of his career, it’s clear that depending on how many games he can play, so goes the team, see the graph below to get a better sense of just how close the ties have been since his taking over in 2002. The comparison is actually pretty incredible. It’s an oversimplification of course, and wins take more than just a Quarterback, but when you don’t have the Bear’s 85 Defense, it’s hard to extricate wins from solid QB play. Looking at this, it helps put into context why the Jets drafted a Quarterback last year in the second round … they wanted an insurance policy and/or possible replacement, and those take time to create. Although Clemens might not yet be ready, he’s learning from a master in Pennington, a guy who has expresses his ability to coach prep when he’s done playing. Time and again, and rightfully so, Pennington’s ability to put the ball downfield is brought up. According to Mike Tanier, only 5% of his passes went more than 25 yards in the air in 2006 (and I think they were all to Justin McCareins on play-fakes … OK not really). In my opinion, limited downfield throwing isn’t so bad, it could be worse … try having the Sex Cannon leading your team into battle. What concerns me is his high ratio of 17 TDs to 16 INTs that Pennington had in 2006. I think that there were many factors which contributed to them. Taking a look at Pennington’s split stats, here are the situations where he had the most trouble: Between the 40s - 7 interceptions To the right side of the field - 7 interceptions When playing from behind - 8 interceptions Two wideouts - 9 interceptions Player in motion - 10 interceptions Lone setback - 10 interceptions. Now there are a number of reasons why these were the times when he had trouble, I think that a lot had to do with learning a new system, his rehab, but mostly because there was such a lack of running game. During his career, Pennington has never averaged more than 30 throws per game in any season, a number which he moved past in 2006. Forcing Pennington to throw the ball more is not the root of the problem, but it is when there’s no viable alternative for defenses to worry about. Sure Pennington made some mistakes during the season (I’m looking at YOU, Bears game!) but with another year under the belt, and a solid running game likely, Pennington should be have a more efficient season than in 2006. Barring an injury, of course. SoFla Jets has alreadt posted this! Sorry! I did not see his. OOPS! Posted: July 19th, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECURB Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Sofla beat you to this one... http://www.jetnation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37850 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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