ProFootballCentral.com

The Miami Dolphins are heading into the 2008 season with a familiar tune, without a clear cut franchise quarterback. It has been since March 13 2000 when Dan Marino retired that this team has gone through several quarterbacks and none of them have panned out. This season there is a 3 way competition going on between veteran Josh McCown, second year veteran John Beck and rookie Chad Henne.   
   
Chad Henne 

Pros- Chad Henne definitely has a great advantage with his familiarity with Jake Long the first overall pick in this year’s draft. A great thing about Henne is he may be the smartest quarterback to come out of this draft and is an immediate team leader. Playing for Michigan means he has played the best of the best and that definitely is a strong asset to have. Looking at his game film, Henne does a tremendous job throwing the deep ball and has definitely shown great arm strength.

 

Cons- Chad Henne from his first down at Michigan has show that he has never been consistent with his accuracy. He also struggles under pressure and takes way too much time holding onto the ball. With how young this offensive line has been together this team may need a mobile quarterback and Henne has never been a mobile quarterback and his footwork is flat out shaky. For playing for a top team like Michigan, Henne at times made freshmen mistakes a lot.

 
John Beck
Pros-John Beck has showed a very strong arm in college and during in 1 year in Miami and has reportedly put on 16 pounds of muscle this off season. John Beck is a very smart quarterback who spends whatever time he can in the game film and spent alot of time this off season working out at the teams facilities and has reportedly thrown almost 4,000 passes on the practice field this off-season. Looking at his game film last season and especially college, Beck showed a pretty quick release and good presence in the pocket.  

Cons- Unlike Henne, Beck definitely needs to work on his deep arm. At times, Beck does put too much power into his throws which results in an overthrow. Beck really got thrown into this team’s starting lineup and started the season as the third quarterback and didn’t have the satisfaction of playing with starters Ronnie Brown and Chris Chambers who got traded to San Diego before Beck’s first start. While he does have a quick release some may hope that he would hold onto the ball a few more seconds to make sure he has his target. He has thrown the ball directly to defenders and needs to work on his accuracy.

 
Josh McCown
Pros- Definitely brings the most experience to this team and has learned a lot due to playing for 4 teams in 7 seasons. During his tenure with Detroit, McCown really didn’t get a chance to start for the team but instead of sulking and being a distraction, he kept quiet and has been labeled as a great teammate wherever he goes. McCown has already shown to be an athletic quarterback who can make plays happen on his own.

Cons- Josh McCown has never cemented himself as a franchise quarterback. A big knock on him is his accuracy, having never completed more than 60.4% of his passes or never had a 7.0+ YPA in a season. He also needs to stay healthy at all times and also needs to avoid any horseplay with his brother off the field. Another big knock on McCown is his inability to complete the deep pass. 
 
The Edge- I’m going to have to give the edge to John Beck here. The fact that he was thrown into this starting lineup when former head coach Cam Cameron even said last year that he didn’t plan on having Beck see the field but because of an injury to Trent Green and the poor play by Cleo Lemon, Beck was thrown into there. I think the fact that he has basically lived at the field house this off season studying game film and doing whatever he can to improve his game. I think McCown has definitely been a great backup QB in this league but has never been successful as a starter and Henne needs a lot of time to learn to catch his bearings in this league and will definitely need to work on his consistency and needs to stop holding onto the ball for so long as well as work on his footwork. With the appropriate time with this new coaching staff, Beck should take the reigns for the Dolphins during the 08 season.