How Chad Pennington Gave Dolphins Fans Hope

How Chad Pennington Gave Dolphins Fans Hope

Today is Chad Pennington’s 50th birthday, and I feel ancient. I still clearly remember the summer of 2008 and the events that led to the former New York Jets’ first-round pick becoming a Miami Dolphin, like it was yesterday. Miami was coming off the worst season in franchise history. 

The 2007 Dolphins went 1-15 in their first and only year under head coach Cam Cameron. If it weren’t for an overtime victory over the Ravens, they would have become the second team to go winless. The vibes were as bad as they ever have been coming into 2008. 

The team hired Tony Sparano, who had previously been the Assistant head coach & offensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys, as their head coach. More importantly, they had hired Bill Parcells to be the executive vice president of football operations. The biggest question the team had was, who would be their starting quarterback? 

The room featured John Beck, who was coming off a rookie year that did little to inspire confidence, Chad Henne, a rookie out of Michigan, and veteran journeyman Josh McCown. While the competition was interesting, it didn’t really get the fans excited. 

Elsewhere in the AFC East, the New York Jets were at an impasse with their quarterback situation. Chad Pennington had shown flashes of greatness after he was drafted in 2000, including winning playoff games in 2002 and 2004. However, his tenure had been undercut by frequent injuries. His final season in New York saw him lose his starting job after a 1-7 start. It was this drop off that led the Jets to trade for Brett Favre. 

With Favre taking over the starting job, Pennington and the Jets parted ways. The fact that the Dolphins were both in need of a quarterback and in the same division as the Jets led to Pennington taking his talents to South Beach. He signed a 2-year, $11.5 million deal and was soon named the starter. 

Heading into the season, the expectations were still fairly low for Miami, and the team started off slowly, losing its first two games of the season. However, everything changed in their week three matchup against the New England Patriots. The Dolphins premiered their wildcat offense and defeated their rivals 38-13. While the major story coming out of the game was the explosive running game, Pennington quietly had one of the best starts of his career, going 17-20 for 226 yards. 

That completion percentage would prove not to be an outlier as he led the league, completing 67.4% of his passes. All told, he would pass for 3,653 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions on his way to being named the comeback player of the year. He also tied for second in MVP voting with Michael Turner, though they were both defeated handily by Peyton Manning. 

Miami would make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. For fans like myself, born too late to see Dan Marino play, it was the first time we witnessed true competence at the quarterback position. While injuries would derail his 2009 and 2010 seasons and eventually force him to hang things up, his 2008 run with the Dolphins will always be remembered as a bright spot in an otherwise dark stretch of Miami football. So Happy Birthday, Chad! Thanks for the memories.

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