Buzz: It’s Official, Chad Doesn’t Want to Be Back
The Star-Ledger’s David Hutchinson has made a career of stirring the pot, and he doesn’t disappoint in his interview with Chad Pennington.
… [Pennington] yesterday made it clear that he’s not ready for permanent clipboard duty.
“I see myself as a starter in this league. That certainly hasn’t changed,” Pennington said in his first extensive interview since his benching. “I try my best to not think about the future right now and really focus on how I can help Kellen.”
See the rest of Hutch’s meat of Hutch’s article, and my thoughts below.
Nonetheless, Pennington totally dismissed the idea of returning to the Jets as a backup and was lukewarm to the thought of coming back as the starter, if that were an option. The Chiefs, Dolphins, Falcons, Ravens and Bears are among the teams expected to be looking for a starting quarterback this off-season.
“There’ll be all different kinds of scenarios and different avenues that I’ll have to look at,” said Pennington, who is 32-28 as a starter, including 1-6 this season, and has led the Jets to the playoffs three times in five seasons. “When that time comes, I’ll have to sit down with my wife and family and we’ll decide on what’s the best for us. … I see myself as helping a football team win. Obviously, evaluations will be made on both sides, and we’ll see what happens.”
Asked if he wants to be the starter with the Jets next season, Pennington sidestepped the question.
“Anytime you have an opportunity to be a starter in this league, no matter where it is, you want to be the guy,” he said. “There’s no other feeling like it. Being the starter and stepping in the huddle and having those 10 other guys look at you for leadership. Absolutely, I want to be a starter.”
Hutch mentions five teams that might be interested, but by my count, there’s feasibly 10 teams. All those that Hutch mentions (Chiefs, Dolphins, Falcons, Ravens & Bears) PLUS the Panthers, Vikings, 49ers, Rams & Bills. Maybe some of those are reaches, but I think that any of those ten could be in play.
Everyone knew that once the switch was made to Clemens the toothpaste was out of the tube. I am sure that Chad is doing his best to be politic, but could have a few good years of football left, so you can’t blame him that he wants to press on and play elsewhere. With multiple years left on his deal and a sizeable hit if the Jets cut him, this should be an interesting storyline to watch in the offseason. Knowing that Chad and the Jets have gone eyeball to eyeball before over contracts, it’s going to be one hell of a staredown.
Filed under: Buzz
Honestly, I think the best thing for the Jets to do would be to gauge Pennington’s trade value. If it’s not high enough, they may want to bring him back and promise him there will be an open competition for the starting job. Make Clemens beat Chad out (which I’m not sure he would do, honestly), and make sure you have a viable player on the bench should the starter go down. On the other hand, if the team wants to free up cap room and take advantage of having a QB with Clemens’ cap number (also very possible), then they are going to have to draft a quarterback and sign a vet. Maybe Ramsey comes back after a year in Denver, or maybe Joey Harrington shakes free from Atlanta and doesn’t get a better offer elsewhere. In any event, if Chad goes, there needs to be some subtantial overhauling of the depth chart there.
I’ll be really curious to see what Chad’s trade value is. It’s a weird draft, where there are a bunch of quarterbacks but none of the top teams figure to need one, as they’ve all drafted quarterbacks recently. Is a middle-tier team going to sit tight for one of the guys to slip to them, or are they going to make a move? Tough to say. I would think Chad would be an excellent fit in Minnesota, but he could probably be effective in any warm weather or dome situation.
if the $$$ the team planned for next year figured the cutting of pennington, then they would have to take best offer.
bit if money isn’t an issue and he doesn’t return better than a 2nd rd pick, i can’t see moving him. would you give a a 3rd rd pick in any draft to know that you have the best back up QB in football? it’s quite a security and most of the time a necessesity.
Anthony shclegal or a the top back up?
Not every team drafts a player like Schlegel in the 3rd round. (Nor does every team draft a player like D’Brick or D-Rob 4th overall–rooting for this team sure does get tiresome.)
Still, I think that Pennington is worth a mid-1st rounder for some teams that are quasi-contenders with bad qb situations.
I vote for trading Pennington and Vilma for a 1 and 2 to KC.
I would trade Chad straight up for a starting OL/DL. Vilma for a 2 and 3.
Honestly, I think we would do better to trade Pennington & Vilma separately rather than packaging them together. If you want to drive up the price in a trade, you need the most suitors possible. By packaging them together, you limit the trade value to a team that has a need for a good QB AND a Pro Bowl caliber 4-3 ILB. If a team with a lot of needs blows you away with an offer to package both of them that’s different, but I wouldn’t market them together per se.
Then again I would re-think that answer if Herm offered us Pennington, Vilma and our 1st rounder for KC’s entire draft like Mike Ditka did with the Saints for Ricky Wiliams. We trade down, get a boatload of picks to build with, don’t have to pay the top money & dump high priced salary at the same time. Herm gets his precious veterans and a top pick to keep his fan base on the level. It’s a win-win right? (note my sarcasm)
IMO, Chad has no trade value and would barely command a 4th round pick. There will be several free agent QBs and a 1/2 dozen QBs will get drafted in the first couple of rounds. Guys like Losman, Brady Quinn, Culpepper, Chris Simms, will all be available. I love Chad’s intangibles, but his arm strength looked materially worse this season. And, age won’t help Chad’s arm.
Vilma, on the other hand, is young and obviously not in synch with the D. So, there should be teams out there that would give more value…but what? A 3rd rounder? Maybe a 2nd rounder, which I think is unlikely? So, then the analysis becomes whether the cap hit is worth the meager returns.
I would also let Chad’s agent try to make a deal. Chad might be humbled and decide a back up role is the best he can expect.
I wish nothing but the best for Chad. On his watch he gave us hope, made us proud, and most importantly he was a class act.
Thank you SackDance. I could not agree more with your comment. Chad is worth a 4th rounder, or maybe a 3rd at best. Only the Jets give up 1st and 2nd round picks for bench players.
The simple best way to maximize Chad’s value is to retain him. Notwithstanding the cap hit, having a capable backup qb is invaluable; particularly given the sorry state of the Jets’ o-line. Trading Chad for a 4th (or even a 3rd) round pick would likely be useless.
teams probably wont want to trade for him, because then they’ll have to take his contract. a team could probably sign him as a free agent for less (with incentives). it all depends on how kellen plays this week. we need to see something big from him the rest of the year, or I don’t think you can go with him next year. unless, you are prepared to have another losing season..
I agree with SackDance and ZenLaw and Redd5 with one caveat. While this is a business and loyalty is valued at next to nothing, I would at least tell Chad’s agent if he can get us a top 50 pick he can engineer a trade, even to a team in our division. That will allow Chad to consider redoing his contract as part of a trade (addressing Redd5’s accurate concern) to see his real market value (which I expect is no better than SackDance’s assumption), yet finally give Tangini the appearance of honoring a guy who gave his all for our team.
Harlan
sack is right…chad gets a 4th back, maybe a 3rd.
but sack…brady quinn will NOT be availabe.
to put him on a list with losman, pepper, and simms is absurd.
Klecko thats exactly what I was thinking. Even though they have Derek Anderson, he is not the guy for the future for them. If anything, he will be available next season.
Back to the topic this, I agree with Sack. He really doesn’t have much trade Value but I think there will be a decent amount of interest, I just don’t think that the offers will be so great.
I do wish the best for Chad though. He was our guy but he just kept getting hurt. :-(
I don’t think his contract is that bad if a team trades for him. All the signing bonus money counts against the Jets cap and much of his current deal is reportedly incentive based, plus there will be no cap hit if the team trading for him has to release him (ie if he was hurt again). Low risk, high reward and therefore his trade value will be determined by his performance, because it will almost certainly be for a conditional pick.
I’d prefer to retain him, am still not convinced he doesn’t deserve another chance to start behind a (hopefully) better line next year without the ankle problems and think he’d be one of the best backups in the league, but if he does want out, I think we owe it to him to give him what he wants.
There will be some kind of market for him though, so we must trade him, not cut him. Releasing him would be senseless, because the cap hit plus the cost of what would be an inferior replacement exceeds his salary anyway if we retain him, especially if he isn’t playing because he won’t be meeting the incentives in his deal (which is of course the main reason he wants out – along with his competitiveness, natch).
put Chad behind the Cowboy O Line and you will see his real value
Vilma and Chad for Hall. Everyone wants out, this would make them all happier. Atlanta plays a 4-3 and has no QB, so good for them. We would have two good corners. From there, we focus on line in the draft. Maybe wishful thinking, but my buddy and me discussed this recently and I am convinced this is what needs to happen.
As for Hall’s mouth/personality, I’m thinking we need some of it. Or we can just throw stupid money at Samuels. I’d be happy with that too. Actually, I’d probably prefer that.
I’m curious to see how the Samuels thing plays out.
To his credit, he has backed up his claim of being in the top 10% of CBs, I’m assuming Mangini must still love him and hasn’t lost interest in trying to get him since last off-season. Plus with Revis, he’d be grinning at the opportunity to have two legit CBs in the Jets backfield for the first time since Houston joined the league and swiped our two.
Its too early to have had a chance to look in depth at the numbers but Moss and Samuels would both have to get paid in NE in order for them to stay, and both warrant contracts in-line with the highest paid players at their respective positions. I know NE has managed the cap situation very, very well, but can they afford two franchise-caliber players in the same year. Further, doesn’t every dollar the Jets use to lure players away from a division rival have more value than dollars spent acquiring similar talent from other divisions?
Its pretty clear to me that the Jets need to make sure both of these players know that they should check in with the Jets camp at the end of the season just to see whats what. At a minimum, we should do whatever we can to drive up the price (which is probably what the attempt to sign Samuels last off-season was about, anyway.)
While neither addresses one of our three biggest needs (DL, OL, LB) working these angles should still be top priorities in the off-season.
[...] everybody seems to be talking Chad Pennington, here’s a link to The Jets Blog, our personal favorite J-E-T-S site, with the scoop. Even though many Chiefs fans are [...]