Whatever Happened With Chad Henne?

Whatever Happened With Chad Henne?

Recently, I’ve written about the Dolphins’ passing on drafting Matty Ryan and the 2008 season with Chad Pennington. A member of the supporting cast for both of these blogs was Chad Henne. Before Ryan Tannehill and Tua Tagovailoa, Henne was the young quarterback of the future for Miami. However, much like Tannehill and Tagovailoa, he never reached the potential he showed at times. 

Chad Henne is probably best known by newer NFL fans as Patrick Mahomes’ backup, who led a great 98-yard touchdown drive in the playoffs against the Jaguars. He won two Super Bowls in his role as the savvy veteran during his time in Kansas City. However, before that, he was the next man up for Miami. 

Chad Henne left Michigan as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the Wolverines. During his time in Ann Arbor, Henne racked up 9,715 yards, 87 touchdowns, and 37 interceptions. He remains the all-time passing yard leader for the school in both yards and touchdowns. 

The biggest knock on Henne coming out of college was his inability to win big games; he went 0-4 against Ohio State and 1-3 in bowl games. If you’re old like me, you, of course, remember his Michigan team losing to Division 2 Appalachian State in 2007. If you’re too young to have watched the game check out the highlights, it was one of the craziest upsets of all time. 

Nevertheless, he was drafted in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft by Miami because he fit Bill Parcells’ criteria for starting quarterbacks. This includes, among other things, the player being a senior or graduate and having extensive experience at the college level. Henne would sit behind Chad Pennington in 2008, only seeing the field in three games and producing a statline of 7-12 for 67 yards. 

However, in 2009, Henne would be called upon to replace an injured Pennington. He had a pretty promising season, going 7-6 with 2,878 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Unfortunately, the team started 0-3 and would miss the playoffs with a 7-9 record. 

The 2010 season began with Henne as the starter, but he would be replaced by Pennington following a middling 4-4 start. That would last less than one game, as Pennington would leave the game with an injury, forcing Henne back into the lineup. All told, Henne would go 6-8 as a starter that season with 3,301 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions. 

He would once again enter the season as the starter in 2011, but things would not go well. Henne and the Dolphins started the season out 0-4 before Henne was injured and placed on Injured Reserve. That would mark the end of Henne’s tenure with the Dolphins, as the team would fire head coach Tony Sparano midseason in favor of Joe Philbin. The team would go on to draft Ryan Tannehill in the first round of the 2012 draft and not re-sign Henne. 

He would go on to be the starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but that led to little success. During his three years as a starter, he went 5-17, and the team replaced him with Blake Bortles. From 2019-22, he backed up Mahomes in Kansas City, and while he rarely saw the field when he did, he made it count. Helping Kansas City during the playoffs in relief of Mahomes against the Browns in 2020 and the Jaguars in 2022. 

Henne is kind of the epitome of the mid 2000s to 2010s Miami Dolphins. Just good enough to get your hopes up, but not good enough to actually provide sustained success. There were moments when I truly believed Henne would be the guy, but ultimately, like so many before and after him, he would fail to be the man after Dan. Though his final act allowed him to prove he could perform in a big game when he needed to, he was unfortunately never able to get the Dolphins into any meaningful moments.

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