I don't care if Henne is throwing every ball in practice into the dirt...A guy that had a 7-6 record in his first season as a starter with no number 1 receiver can't be disappointing until after a few games this season Especially considering that Pennington was 0-3 with the same team last year...actually better since it was prior to injuries
If Henne is the long term answer, he should outplay Chad Pennington in his third year in the league. 3rd year is the general break out year for most QBs. If there exists a QB controversy in his 3rd year, Henne is probably not their long term solution.
The wording "First season as a starter" is overrated. So if a guy sits on the bench for 5 years waiting for his turn, and then he starts in year 6, that surely does make him a first year starter, but it explains why using such term would make it overrated. The correct term would be a second year pro when he started. The guy had a 7-6 record, but lost three straight towards the end when it counted. I saw a similar patern in Cleveland few years ago when Derek Anderson started and played well in the first few weeks, until he started sucking towards the last quarter of the season running into the playoffs. Henne started sucking towards the end of the season and couldn't win a game when they could have claimed a playoff spot. Not saying Henne and Anderson are similar, but just pointing out a trend. When QBs are supposed to be better as in towards the latter part of the season, he regressed. That shows that the Ds picked up on his weaknesses and attacked him rather than having him attack them. If Henne is supposed to be what Dolfan expect him to be, then he fixes those weaknesses and comes out strong this year. That's probably what has not happened, hence the comment from Parcells.
While I agree with parts of what you are saying, you are oversimplifying things a bit... Week 11 he had a good game against Carolina, making a clutch 3rd down completion to cement the game Week 12 he was having a good game in Buffalo until the D gave up td after td after td and he threw 3 picks trying to come from behind Week 13 he took the team on his back throwing for over 300 yards to beat New England Week 14 He had a so-so game with an awful pick at the end in a win Week 15 The D played like shit from minute 1 and Henne was sloppy but played well enough to force overtime until a bad throw in OT cost us the game Week 16 Against Houston I thought he played well but again the D was horrible and Hennes 1 pick was a dropped pass by ricky williams Week 17 against the Steelers he got hurt So nothing incredible but again nothing you can say you are disappointed in out of a 2nd year pro with a shit wr corp
When I hear Parcells is very disappointed in Henne, I have to assume that he's talking about the development he made in the offseason - not his production last year or his stats in the preseason games. Year 2 teams have a lot of film to work with, so if he hasn't made significant progress to where he's corrected mistakes and so that they can open up the playbook it will likely be very difficult for him.
