Chad Henne knows that the Jaguars are almost certainly going to be drafting a quarterback next month and he knows how he’d handle that quarterback’s development.
Henne recalled his own experiences as a second-round pick who joined a Miami team that already had Chad Pennington on the roster and said that he benefitted from watching how Pennington handled the starting offense during training camp. Henne feels that all rookie quarterbacks could see similar benefits from starting on the bench.
“You go from the Senior Bowl to the Combine and then you really never take a couple months off,” Henne said, via the Florida Times Union. “You need a break to get your mind at ease and get accustomed to being an NFL player.”
Henne has a pretty big dog in this hunt, obviously, as a redshirt season for a rookie would leave Henne to start for Jacksonville, but the Jaguars have expressed interest in going that route already. How likely that scenario is will have much to do with when the Jags take a quarterback, but Henne also knows that the best laid plans can go up in smoke pretty quickly. He wound up as the starter in Miami three weeks into the year after Pennington was lost for the season.