Henne Retirement Brings Back Old Dolphins Draft Debate
In the aftermath of the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl LVII victory against the Philadelphia Eagles, Chiefs backup quarterback Chad Henne announced via Instagram that he was retiring.
Yes, that's the same Chad Henne who the Miami Dolphins selected in the second round of the NFL draft all the way back in 2008 as an indirect result of one of the most debated draft decisions in team history.
Henne certainly carved himself a nice NFL career even after the Dolphins let him leave as an unrestricted after he had started 31 games for them in his first four seasons.
Henne was in the NFL for an additional 11 seasons after leaving Miami, almost exclusively as a backup. After a stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Henne joined the Chiefs in 2018 to serve as the backup to Patrick Mahomes as he was getting ready to take over as their starting quarterback.
While he saw very little action behind Mahomes, Henne stepped up big time for the Chiefs in his two playoff appearances over the years — completing a crucial fourth-down pass to Tyreek Hill in a divisional round against Cleveland in the 2020 playoffs right after he had scrambled for 13 yards on third-and-14 and then leading a 98-yard drive against Jacksonville in the same round last month.
In short, Henne did his job as a backup quarterback.
THE GREAT DOLPHINS DRAFT DILEMMA OF 2008
Props to Henne on a solid NFL career as a backup quarterback, but that wasn't why the Dolphins took him in the second round in 2008 — especially after the decision they had made at the top of the draft.
Yes, the 2008 draft.
That was the year the Dolphins had the first overall pick by virtue of their dreadful 1-15 record of the previous season, and their bad luck was that there was no slam-dunk generational-type quarterback available in the draft.
The consensus best QB prospect was Matt Ryan, but Bill Parcells decided instead to go with Michigan tackle Jake Long, whose only flaw as a prospect was that he didn't play quarterback.
In the case of two evenly matched prospects (or close to it), conventional wisdom says to go with the quarterback — always. But in this case, Long clearly was a better tackle than Ryan was a quarterback, the only problem is that Long had his career derailed by injuries after he made the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons.
Had he stayed healthy, he very would could have ended up as a Hall of Famer.
As for Ryan, his career appears to be winding down after a forgettable 2022 season with the Colts. He's made the Pro Bowl four times, been All-Pro once and went to one Super Bowl — and 28-3 is all you know to remember about that game.
Having taken Long first overall, the Dolphins then took Henne thinking he might become their quarterback of the future, which obviously didn't pan out.
So the question is whether the Dolphins made a mistake in going with Long (and Henne) instead of taking Ryan at number 1 and using the 57th overall pick on somebody other than Henne.
Would the Dolphins still have won the AFC East title in 2008 with Ryan at quarterback but not Jake Long at left tackle instead of Long in the lineup and Chad Pennington at quarterback?
Would the Dolphins have made the playoffs more than three times since that 2008 draft had they selected Ryan instead of Long?
Could they have won a Super Bowl title with Ryan?
They're all valid questions, but it's difficult to lump the decision to go with Long over Ryan with other regrettable Dolphins calls involving the quarterback position, such as not taking Drew Brees late in the first round of the 2001 draft, taking Ronnie Brown instead of Aaron Rodgers with the second pick of the 2005 draft, trading for Daunte Culpepper instead of signing Brees as a free agent in 2006, sticking too long with Ryan Tannehill, and possibly now taking Tua Tagovailoa instead of Justin Herbert with the fifth overall pick in 2020 because it's a lot easier to envision at this time Herbert being a Pro Bowl quarterback five years down the line than Tua, in large part because of the durability concerns.
But, no, Henne didn't become a great pick for the Dolphins because a quarterback taken in the second round should become a starter. That doesn't take away from his ability to carve out a pretty good career for himself.
