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Dolphins QB Chad Henne not playing like rookie

By EDGAR THOMPSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 01, 2008

DAVIE — The game is slowing down a little bit each day for rookie quarterback Chad Henne.

As the nanoseconds melt away, Henne closes the gap in the Dolphins' three-man quarterback race.

When training camp opened last Saturday, Henne was a rookie holdout. Lately, Henne consistently has upstaged veterans Josh McCown and John Beck.

"I'm really impressed with him," McCown, a seventh-year pro, said of Henne. "To be a rookie, he's come in right in the mix and pushed us."

Today, Henne said he hopes to build on the past few days when the Dolphins scrimmage for the first time during training camp. But he also expects his most challenging practice yet.

Both sides will call their own plays, while coaches will look to create game-like conditions by manipulating down and distance and field position.

The quarterbacks are expected to split 90-100 snaps among them.

"The scrimmage is going to be big for us," said Henne, who signed a four-year deal in between two-a-days last Saturday. "It's all reaction and what you do with the ball in those situations."

Heading into today's scrimmage, none of the quarterbacks have gained the upper hand, in fact the situation is so cloudy that the team asked Quincy Carter in for a workout Thursday.

Carter, 30, guided Bill Parcells' first Cowboys team to the playoffs in 2003, but has been out of the league since 2004 and struggled with drugs.

Coach Tony Sparano didn't say what the team's plans are for Carter.

"He threw the ball well and did some things that way," Sparano said. "He looked fine."

But, for now, the focus is on the quarterbacks in camp and, in particular, Henne, 23, who has shown teammates he can handle more than a lot of rookies.

"He's picking up the offense pretty fast," said wide receiver Ernest Wilford, now in his fifth NFL season. "The more opportunities he gets, the better he can be."

Henne said he began to find his comfort zone during a couple of solid practices on Wednesday and Thursday night in the team's indoor practice facility.

While McCown missed on a number of throws he'd made earlier in the week and Beck, a rookie in 2007, continued his camp-long struggles, Henne fired the ball to his receivers with confidence and purpose.

Sparano said he noticed a change in Henne on Thursday during a red-zone drill.

"It looked like things kind of slowed up on him a little bit," Sparano said. "We have to get to a point where the entire practice is slowing down a little for him that way."

Each day, Henne and the quarterbacks are asked to learn more of the offense. Each time, the game speeds back up as Henne tries to assimilate his new assignments.

But few things seem to rattle Henne, who was a four-year starter at the University of Michigan and Wilson High School in West Lawn, Pa.

"He was exposed to a high level of football in college," McCown said. He knows what it takes. You see that."

Henne's poise also has impressed Sparano, who's curious to see how the rookie maintains it on Sundays.

"I like his presence in the huddle and he does seem kind of relaxed out there," Sparano said. "I mean he's played in front of 100,000 out there (in Michigan Stadium) in critical situations.

"I'm kind of interested to see how he handles the game when it really is moving as fast as we've been trying to prep him for."

With the Sept. 7 season-opener more than a month away, there's plenty of time to prepare Henne and the other Dolphins quarterbacks.

Henne hopes to make the most of every second of it, but Friday, he failed to build on two good practices. He missed on some throws, including several behind receivers.

"We have to get on the same page," Henne said. "Sometimes they don't catch the ball or I make a bad throw or we're not in the right situation or they run the wrong route. We're all still learning together.

"We'll start clicking in the next week or so."

All these reports have me questioning the QB coach a little.  The guys that spent time working with him the most are also sucking the most.  Is this coinsidence?  Is this just a timing issue and the fact that we are still early in camp?  Is it just an issue of talent?  Is it because the new playbook puts everyone on a level playing field?

I have no clue but Beck should be looking better at this point, not worse.

Wait till the preseason comes around.  Then we'll see who's who out there.