(08-17-2017, 05:12 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(08-17-2017, 04:57 PM)FBT Wrote: Brunell was a good starter.  Since then, it's been a series of unfortunate events.  

Leftwich had the mind for the game, but physically, he didn't have a quick enough release to avoid getting killed.  The guy was tough as nails, but you can only take so much of a beating.

Garrard had all of the physical tools to be a very good QB.  Unfortunately, he didn't have it between the ears.  He would constantly second guess himself when he was in the middle of a play.  I always said if you took Byron's football IQ and put that with David's physical abilities, you'd have a great QB.

Gabbert.  Oy vey.  The guy was the poster child for "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane."  Another guy with all the physical tools, but he was allergic to contact.  I've never seen someone curl up in the fetal position fearing contact when nobody was around, but he had it down to a science.

Henne.  Career backup.  The guy isn't good.  He isn't bad.  He just is.  You'll see him make some of the most beautiful throws on some plays, but turn right around and make a boneheaded decision on the next.  If he could have found a way to be more consistent, he probably would have won the starting job.  He managed to avoid that completely.

Yeah, whatever the opposite of "Murderer's Row" is, that's what we've had under center for the past 14 years, and it really shows why this team has struggled as badly as it has.  No QB, no success.

Your descriptions of Leftwich, Garrard and Gabbert are pretty much spot on.

Henne, though he's been a backup for more of his career than a starter, I don't think he was "terrible" in Miami.  I also don't think that he got a "fair shake" while here as the starter given the head coach and the cast around him at the time.  Could he have been a "serviceable" quarterback with a better supporting cast?  Perhaps.  I'm by no means saying that he could have been a "franchise" quarterback, but I think that if he was put on a better team he would have done better.  Ultimately his age, rebuilding and the youth of the team caught up with him.

I suspect that he has remained as the backup because of that.  He has the "mind" but just doesn't have the "body" to do it anymore.

The thing about career backups is that they are never outright terrible. In limited play they can even have the look a competent starter but when you ask them to play 16 games they fall down. Let's say something happens to Bortles and he's out for 4 weeks, Henne would probably go 2-2 during those 4 weeks. But over 16 games Henne would be lucky to get anything over 9-7. Remember when Quinn Gray had to start for an injured Garrard and he went 2-1?

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