Chad Pennington becomes Dolphins starting QB

Talk about “landing on your feet”—less than 48 hours from the time he was unceremoniously dumped by the New York Jets in order to make way for the Brett Favre circus, Chad Pennington has signed a two year, $11.5 million dollar contract with the Miami Dolphins. Since the pay range for top back up QB’s is significantly lower than what the Fish are paying Pennington, its apparent that they’ve already slotted him into a starting job.

Unlike Favre, who could only find one team with enough cap room who were also desperate enough to take him, Pennington had at least a half dozen teams vying for his services. The rap on Pennington has always been that he lacks the arm strength of a prototypical NFL QB, but is otherwise a solid pro. He’s considered to be a capable team leader, adept at reading defenses and with a good head on his shoulders. He’s also a very efficient QB—he’s #1 in NFL history in completion percentage among QB’s with 1500+ passing attempts.

In the wake of his release by the Jets and prior to his signing with the Dolphins, Pennington displayed the class and humility that has been completely absent from Brett Favre’s behavior during the past few months. In comments to the Associated Press, Pennington summed up his tenure with the Jets:

"I've learned a lot, become a better professional and a better man because of my experience and my time in New York. I don't regret or feel ashamed about anything that happened to me in my time in New York. The most difficult part is just the realization that the organization no longer wants you. You spend eight years there and, in the blink of an eye, you're no longer wanted there."

If Pennington harbored any ill will toward Favre he definitely didn’t show it, and his gentlemanly behavior was rewarded with some good karma—he’s now making essentially the same as he would have with the Jets, but now has a solid grip on the starting job and will lead a team that has bitten the bullet and started to rebuild. With the Jets he would have been competing with Kellen Clemens for the dubious honor of starting on a team completely spinning its wheels and with no semblance of direction for the future.

The Dolphins have yet to officially announce the Pennington signing and his status on the depth chart, but every indication is that they’ll do so once they figure out with to do with their logjam of backup signal callers (former BYU standout John Beck, who was running third on the depth chart before Pennington’s signing will likely be the odd man out). Pennington is too classy to say it publicly, but there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to revitalize his career in Miami while his old team “crashes and burns” under the weight of a Hall of Fame ego that didn’t know when to step away from the game.