The one thing about Vinnie was... he was fearless. I mean, he would stand in that pocket and wouldn't give a shit. He was big enough, strong enough, and in good enough shape to do that too... so he'd stand there until the last moment and then release that rocket, come hell or high water. This is what every team wants from a QB. The same will never be said about Pennington, who, from early on, always exhibited a good touch of the "deer in the headlights" syndrome. He never shook it, and it got worse in later years for him, especially after the injury, so much so that it's the one major thing that keeps me from wanting him to ever take another snap for us. His weak arm is legendary, true. But I could even live with that if he had a little bit of the Vinnie "balls" in him. Unfortunetely for him and the NY Jets, he doesn't have it. And it's questionable now as to whether or not Clemens has it. He certainly stands in the pocket longer and with more "balls" than Penny exhibits, it's now just a question of whether or not he can make good decisions while under that kind of pressure.
It's weird, his first couple of games he was helping drives along by taking off running, then he became indecisive about doing that. I don't know if the coaches told him to stay in the pocket or the rib injury affected him. It will be interesting to see how he handles that this camp/season.
Clemens did get injured last season. I don't know whether it had anything to do with some of his poor play afterward, but it might have.
You can't say Pennington doesnt have balls. He played half a year with a torn rotatir cuff and came in for a couple series' when he had a high ankle sprain do you know how hard that is. I play college bball and had a high ankle sprain and tried coming back in and it was not happenin no matter how bad i wanted to
^ besides the fact that that has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, it's clear that your reading comprehension is piss poor if you actually think I would agree with that ignorant statement.
I had a very bad ankle sprain after "rolling" my fight foot, so I know exactly what you are talking about. I have no way of knowing how bad Penny's sprain was, but if it had been as bad as mine, there is no way he could have even walked, because I was on crutches. It blew up like a freakin' watermellon within 5 minutes. But look... I never said Penny didn't have balls. And it took guts to go out there with the shoulder thing going on. Truth be known, he still wasn't healed or rehabbed far enough even when Herm put him back in that fall. I was at TC and watched him and even commented on that... that I hoped I was wrong, but in fact it looked like Penny was not completely healthy yet. So yeah, Penny has guts that way. Now, that still doesn't dispel the "Deer-In-The-Headlights," Chinese Fire Drill shit that goes on. If you're going to tell me that Pennington does not get flustered when you pressure him, then I'll tell you that you are flat wrong. This is how Defenses have been game-planning against him, in fact, that's how wrong you are. Every swinging DC knows how Penny responds to pressure, so that's what they bring and dare him to burn them. Sometimes he does, but for every one of those, he does like he did in his last sets of games, which was to make horrendous mental (and physical) errors in the face of pressure. I admire Pennington for all he tried to give us and I'll never forget some of the games where he had us close, but last year just did it for me. I know the O-line was horrid and no one could have pulled out the season for us, but part of his problem is that he brings (brought) an awful lot of this shit on himself too, by not being able to throw the ball more than 25 yards. Defenses were licking their chops to play against Pennington, anticipating all kinds of INTs and turnovers. No... we cannont go back to Pennington, I don't care what the hell happens out there.
And I don't even care how good Chad looks in TC. I've been there many times now and he ALWAYS looks good in TC. There's something about that red shirt, you know? He could look like f@cking Joe Montana in TC and I'm still not buying into him starting. I got sucked into that scenario too many TCs now... seeing him look fantastic and then the first real game comes along and... WTF? The KC opener several years back comes to mind. That one ripped my guts out. Probably Pennington's worst game of his entire career... that, after looking terrific in TC. That's the problem with TC, especially getting a feel for the QB. Even the cockamamie "Preseason Games," HA.... what a farce. You still don't see squat until the hitting starts and the QB has to make split-second decisions on the fly. Pennington has had many years to show us he was our "franchise QB," but for me, that time is long gone. No way Jose.
Who cares? Honestly, I'm so sick of people bringing up the 2002 Pennington season. He had one very good season - one. People want to hold onto that season in their minds like he's still the same QB. Wake up people, snap out of it. He's 2 shoulder surgeries and 6 years removed from that single golden season.
I've been thinking maybe the Brett Favre idea isn't so off the wall afterall. If Clemens starts (probably will) and falls flat on his face or goes down, then what? We play Chad and we're right back to the dink and dunk and DEFs jamming the box so bad you can't even run the freaking ball because we've got no room. Ainge won't be ready, so we're basically stuck with that scenario. In other words, we're one good QB pop away from the kind of football we've been living with for years... struggling on every down to get 2-3 yards and not making many conversions... too many 3-and-outs and punting the ball away to the opposition to give them one more chance to score again. Yeah, our O-line looks improved, but we haven't taken a snap yet. Suppose they're mediocre and we still don't generate much of a running game? The whole Pennington-as-a-backup thing makes me nervous. I fell better about our Defense this year, but the Offense has got me paranoid every time I think of Pennington taking the field.
and our "back-up" can't even beat out a guy with 2 shoulder surgeries. kellen is not our answer for the future so i can see all the kellen fans wanting vinny.
Last I checked there was no starter named so neither QB is the backup at this point. And the last time there was an official starter, his name wasn't Pennington. How do you figure Kellen can't beat out Chad? Also, you're writing off KC after 1/2 a season behind a piss poor o-line?
How about we draft a kid who is no question the starter, and these two can fall by the way side, that way no one wins. It would make me a lot happier.
I'm pretty happy about our draft picks this year, don't get me wrong. Tannenbaum has built this team up with all the offseason/draft moves we've made. But we've addressed everything except possibly the one position we're now most vulnerable in... the QB position. If I could change ONe THING about everything we did, it would be to manuever around our picks and somehow get to this pick: #18: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uq4NGk8a5b4&feature=related There's your modern-day Vinnie Testaverde, sitting right there. And the Ravens own him now.
