How would Pennington’s career have gone with perfect health?

[bzane]

9 hours ago, MSURacerDT55 said:

Could have be the best weak armed QB to play the game 

Brutal (went to visit him at The Home; he's doing well!) tells me that Fran Tarkenton had a rag arm worthy of a twelve-year-old girl, but managed to propel the Vikings to three or four Super Bowls, all of which they lost.

Also told me that Fran cranked out a 14.72 in the all-important 100-yard dash, but still was an effective scrambler!

[Bianconero]

22 hours ago, JustAnotherFan said:

He would have been Alex Smith before Alex Smith. A QB good enough to take a team to the playoffs but not good enough to put them over the top. 

His accuracy in the short-medium range were deadly accurate in both precision and timing. However, he had a noodle arm and was very erratic on throws deep down field. 

He had a noodle-arm bc of injury

It wasn't great before that, but the injuries ruined his arm strength 

[footbull3196]

1 hour ago, Xenos said:

If he had gone to a team with a HC like Sean Payton, then possibly Drew Brees. People knock Pennington's arm strength, but people forget that Brees probably had the 2nd weakest arm strength after him during his time with the Chargers.

 

 

Idk about all that.  His arm sure looked fine on that 80 yard touchdown to Eric Parker

[ronjon1990]

He would still be the greatest QB out of Marshall.

And he'd have had a very unspectacular career with how bad those Jets teams were/got. 

But I bet he gets a Superbowl ring in one of those 2 Sanchez led AFCCG seasons. 

[JAF-N72EX]

13 hours ago, TheKillerNacho said:

He had decent arm strength prior to the injuries. It was never a particularly strong arm, but he'd be far from a "noodle arm" if we remove all injuries. Pennington actually had pretty good deep ball accuracy too, even after the injuries (people who said he lacked deep accuracy just plain never watched the dude) - he just didn't really have the velocity you want, obviously.

His injuries only further highlighted his arm strength and deep ball accuracy but it was not the cause of it. At no point did Pennington ever have a strong arm on him - not even a "decent" one. His lack of arm strength had nothing to do with his injuries as that one of the knocks on him dating all the way back to his Marshall days. Not many expected him to go as early as he did in the draft because of this issue and many beleived that he was just a product of Randy Moss. In fact, his former coach Pruett tried desperately to ease the minds of regional scouts and GM's by defending Pennington with every opportunity he got by continuously using the same (paraphrased) "while his arm is an issue, they have been working hard to improve on it" platitude.

And as a long-time MAC fan who attended almost every game I could in the 90's including his MAC championship game vs Rockets and Leftwich's 5 and 6TD games in early 2000's, don't pull the "you haven't watched him play" card. Because I would say that those who argue against him having a noodle arm are the ones who never really watched him &/or never watched him closely. There is a reason why most people like myself say that he was noodle arm QB who was inaccurate on deep balls.

[EvilenFroggen]

48 minutes ago, ronjon1990 said:

He would still be the greatest QB out of Marshall.

And he'd have had a very unspectacular career with how bad those Jets teams were/got. 

But I bet he gets a Superbowl ring in one of those 2 Sanchez led AFCCG seasons. 

No love for Leftwich.

[JAF-N72EX]

17 minutes ago, DaveDX said:

No love for Leftwich.

Leftwich's unique ability put Pruett in unfamiliar territory and he didn't know how to handle it properly. Leftwich started out in high-school as a run first passer who would tuck and run after his first progression and Pruett and the WR/OC coach(dammit forget his name) tried to fix this and in many ways they did in college, to an extent, but them same old habits reared it's ugly head again in the NFL. But that was not ALL on him, however, the Jaguars in general was disarray. 

Micheal Vick was idolized by so many young kids and started a trend that even some coaches believed, at the time, was the future of football and the end of pocket QB's. 

[ronjon1990]

34 minutes ago, DaveDX said:

No love for Leftwich.

Leftwich is definitely #2 on that list

[Calvert28]

He would have stuck with the Jets so it would have sucked.

[rdelaney89]

I think the Jets would have gotten a ring with the 2008, 2009, or 2010 team. People forget we were 8-3 in 2008 before Favre got hurt. Sanchez played well in the playoffs so maybe it's splitting hairs but I think Chad would have found a way to win in Pittsburgh.

[CP3MVP]

There was so many chad interceptions that could’ve been completions/touchdowns  if he simply had the arm strength. This is why he usually got exposed against great defenses 

[Thelonebillsfan]

Most accurate QB I have ever seen, he'd still be playing if he never had a major arm injury. Phenominal QB, people forget how great he was in the few years of health he head. The Jets would have been legitimate and serious competitors for the division all the time.

[Thelonebillsfan]

Also the ability to throw deep has a minimal correlation with arm strength. Deep ball throwing is predominantly with your hips. While intermediate and short routes are also using your hips, natural arm generated velocity combined with your mechanics are what generate spin and velocity. He had an NFL caliber arm before the first shoulder injury, after that it was degenerative and he simply couldn't recover.

[Sugashane]

Honestly I see him being better than Smith but below Brees (saying him just because of not having a "cannon" but being ridiculously accurate). One of the guys who always is considered hall of very good but never HoF, usually in the 5-8 range in NFL QBs.

[Danger]

Defending against Pennington honestly isn't that hard. Just cheat up with the safeties and spread the linebackers into coverage accordingly. Make him try to beat you deep. Hint: He can't.