Henne got blown up by a free blitzer on his very first pass attempt of the season against New England.... he has to identify that pre-snap. He's getting hit way too much back there in the pocket even when he doesn't scramble. Anyone that has watched the games can see this without the statistics, but the statistics back up what you're seeing.
The ONE thing I've always admired about Henne is his toughness. Kid is one of the toughest QB's in the league. He never flinches .... he'll stand there and deliver the football staring right down the barrell and never flinch. The anti-John Beck....
However, that's also been a big problem with him going all the way back to his Michigan days, and one of the things things that I'm talking about when I say he looks just like he did in college. He took way too many unnecessary hits at Michigan by doing the same thing, and it's what eventually got him knocked out of games. The same will happen in the NFL, I guarantee it.
It's not all on the offensive line. A lot of times Henne fails to recognize free blitzers, or doesn't get the ball out quick enough due to his double-clutching combined with a slower than ideal release.
The biggest hits a QB takes are almost never sacks due to an offensive lineman getting beat. The biggest hits happen coming from free blitzers that the QB fails to recognize, or hits that happen right as you're stepping into the throw, and the defender hits you anyway.
There's little things a quarterback can do to minimize the amount of punishment he's taking back there. Some QB's pick up on these little nuances easily, some don't. The details and intricacies have never come easy to Chad Henne.
