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Draft Diaries: Chad Henne

This is Part 2 in a series on the Dolphins draft picks after Jake Long, who was widely publicized.  Today, get to know QB Chad Henne.

It was harder to find stuff to write about on Henne.  There is much to write about guys like Phillip Merling (who walked his way into a new family) or Donald Thomas (that one is coming later).  But it can be a struggle to find stuff to write about a guy who is one of those lunchpail guys.  Just does his job.  Goes to work, plays football, goes home.

So instead of some life story with some deep moral, here’s just a look at the player we are getting.

Henne played at Wilson Senior High School (the only high school in it’s own district) in his home town of West Lawn, PA.  The town is now known as Spring Township.  He set the school records for passing yards and TDs, and was selected to play in the US Army All-American Bowl.  Henne has said that even though he’s hails from the Philly-side of PA, he kept tabs on Dan Marino (from Pittsburgh) as a kid and admired his career.

Henne chose to play at Michigan, and became the first true freshman to start at QB for the Maize and Blue since Rick Leach in 1975.  The move proved wise, as Henne was the lynchpin in an explosive 2004 Wolverines offense, featuring burners like Braylon Edwards and Steve Breaston.  Henne tied the single season Michigan TD passing record, 25, with Elvis Grbac in 1991.  Again, Henne did this as a TRUE freshman.

Henne went on to have an impressive career at Michigan that, while record setting, saw some criticism.  Some got on Henne for his inability to win “the big game”, shown by his career 1-7 record in Bowl games and games against rival Ohio State.  However, that 1 was his final college football game, in the capital One Bowl against the Florida Gators.  While I hated his efficiency as a Gator fan, even then I admired how he simply sliced through a more talented Gator defense.  He followed that up with an Offensive MVP performance in the 2008 Senior Bowl.

Henne set basically every relevant passing record at Michigan.  828 completions, 1387 attempts, 9715 yards, 87 TDs, and 32 interceptions.  That last stat isn’t really a record you WANT to own, but it’s mainly due to his playing all 4 years.  87 TDs to 32 picks is over a 2.7 TD/Int ratio.  Not bad.

Henne is a big tough QB, exactly what the Triforce wanted.  It’s not that I don’t believe that the QB competition is open, but it’s clear Henne is their dream QB.  Tough, big, “laser rocket arm”, a competitor.  One concern is that it is taking him a bit to hit on the new offense.  Henne missed some routes during the recent rookie minicamp, and was actually made to run a lap because he messed up a snap count.  But now that he has a few weeks to just wake up, eat, study, maybe throw outside on his own a bit, sleep, wake up, repeat, I’m confident he’ll get the hang of the playbook.

Tune in to the next Draft Diaries when we take a look at a more obscure player; 3rd round pick out of Hampton, DE Kendall Langford.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Miami Dolphins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.