The New York Jets should have stuck with Chad Pennington
With all of the injuries that Chad Pennington fought through to continue his career, he deserved the respect of the coaching staff and front office but he didn’t get it as he was benched in the middle of the season for Kellen Clemens. Pennington played in 9 games this season for the Jets and he completed 179 of 260 passes (68.8%) for 1,765 yards with 10 TD passes and 9 interceptions (86.1 QB Rating). He also carried the ball 20 times for 32 yards (1.6 ypc) with 1 TD run this season. Pennington has now played in 70 games in his NFL career and he has completed 1,259 of 1,919 passes (65.6%) for 13,738 yards with 82 TD passes and 55 interceptions (88.9 QB Rating). He also has carried the ball 147 times for 396 yards (2.7 ypc) with 6 TD runs.
Kellen Clemens was the starter in the second half of the season and he was awful. He played in 10 games for the Jets this season and he completed 130 of 250 passes (52%) for 1,529 yards with 5 TD passes and 10 interceptions (60.9 QB Rating). He also carried the ball 27 times for 111 yards (4.1 ypc) with 1 TD run. Coming into this season Clemens had thrown 1 incompleted pass and he had carried the football 2 times for 10 yards.
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I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can deny Chad’s incredible decline. His arm got noticeably weaker from the beginning of last season to the end, and even more so from the end of last season to the beginning of this one. Chad can no longer make the short out–one of the most basic throws required of a quarterback. Chad is, quite simply, physically incapable of playing quarterback at a professional level.
Moreover, Chad took a huge step back in terms of efficiency this season. The same people who harp on Chad’s “savvy” and “efficiency” and “care for the football” conveniently overlooked his mediocre 17 TD/16 INT season last year because he led us into the playoffs; now it seems they’re willing to overlook the horrible interceptions he threw this season–many of which, contrary to popular opinion, were NOT due to pressure but were either a) directly related to a lack of arm strength resulting in the DBs sitting on routes, or b) horrible reads that no veteran of Chad’s experience should make.
At this point, Chad–who could never fall back on arm strength–has apparently also lost the intelligence and ability to protect the football that made him so effective in 2002 and, to a lesser extent, 2004. By the Cincinnati game, he was playing scared, never looking downfield, never finding the open man, constantly going to the RB screen or flat. In a season and a half, the Jets went from a short-passing game to a dink-and-dunk passing game to a dumpoff passing game, and that sort of offense simply will not win you a game.
I always liked Chad as a competitor and teammate and leader, but he’s cashed in on one good year (2002) and done very little since then. He has never been able to consistently defeat top-10 defenses, his lack of arm strength severely limits the offensive game plan (and simplifies the plan for the opposing defense), and–this year in particular, but throughout his career–he is utterly unable to overcome a bad turnover. He presses during close games and runs the most pathetic 2-minute offense in all of football.
I am not denying that the offensive line is bad (actually, I think it’s the worst in the league), or that the running game is ineffective, or that our defense has choked away several 4th-quarter leads.
But guess what?
Behind the same crappy offensive line, supported by the same crappy running game, protected by the same crappy defense, AND with banged-up receivers…Clemens has clearly outperformed Chad this season.
Don’t believe me? Look at the numbers. Since Clemens became the full-time starter (i.e., not counting the Baltimore game), and counting the NE game as a Chad loss since he played the majority of the game:
1) Offensive Points Per game has increased from 12.63 under Chad to 17.67 under Clemens.
2) Total yards per game has gone from 271.75 under Chad to 304.67 under Clemens
3) Rushing yards per game has gone from 92.63 under Chad to 118.33 under Clemens
4) Rushing yards per carry has gone from 3.76 under Chad to 4.01 under Clemens
5) Our winning % has gone from .125 under Chad to .429 under Clemens
I’m not saying Clemens is a future Hall of Famer, or even that he’s necessarily the long-term answer for the Jets (although 7 starts is absolutely not enough time to evaluate a QB). I’m just saying this: Chad ISN’T the answer. Period.
Dave, I couldn’t agree with you more. What these fans and observers don’t get is this: It’s not even a question of who gives us the best chance to win a game now. Mangini gave Chad every opportunity to succeed and he didn’t. It was time to move on from Chad and give someone else a shot. I personally think he stayed with Chad too long. He is not going to get it done for us and we need to start looking for our next quaterback. Mangini is giving Clemons a shot at it and he should. And again, as you pointed out, Kellen’s numbers weren’t great but the team performed better with him. Case closed.
No really. I’m not that good. I should have been benched.
I’m not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.