FWIW I absolutely see the similarities when you're talking about Mallett versus Henne. Chad Henne is not a leader, and I suspect that if you asked players around Arkansas they would say the same about Mallett. In hindsight, to see a guy that was entering his 2nd year as a starting QB, with everyone assuming he was the QB of the future, not even be elected by the team as a captain...was a HUGE red flag. Mallett and Henne both have great arms and they both are accurate. I don't get this "Henne couldn't hit the broad side of a barn" BS. That's just people using their emotion to cloud their evaluation. Henne's accurate with the ball, as Bill Polian said coming out of the Draft, Chad Henne was probably the best pure thrower in that Draft (which means arm strength and accuracy quotient). Strictly speaking, Chad Henne is not an awful athlete, and neither is Ryan Mallett. Henne ran a 4.92 in the 40 and had some decent shuttle and cone numbers, that kind of thing. Josh Freeman only ran a 4.90 in the 40 yard dash. Henne's pure athleticism isn't the reason for his sluggish feet. Same can be said of Mallett. They both have trouble when forced to make throws on the move or from bad leverage. They're both questionable screen throwers (which requires throwing the ball with touch while backing up). They both throw with mediocre (at best) anticipation. They both have questionable ball placement on short passes. They both regularly beat the blitz with their arms.
But there are also a couple of key differences that make me conclude that Ryan Mallett is a BETTER version of Chad Henne. Just because they compare stylistically doesn't mean their careers will be the same.
Ryan Mallett is infinitely more aggressive than Chad Henne with his throws, and that is a HUGE problem in Chad Henne's game. Henne's never really been aggressive with the ball even in college. Being more aggressive like Mallett is can get you into trouble...but so too can being too conservative. Notice how many interceptions Henne had this year. How many of those were "not his fault"? You know WHY you get so many interceptions that end up not looking totally like the QB's fault? Because your so NOT aggressive, and the passing offense plays so tight and predictable, that defenses are reading you and making the margin for error extraordinarily slim. I mean the number of interceptions Henne threw that were purely his brain farts is actually pretty low. But that's not necessarily a good thing. If I have a quarterback that threw 15 interceptions, it's a better sign for me if a good 12 of them could be laid at his feet for being too aggressive and the like...as opposed to a QB that threw 15 picks and only 5 of them were REALLY his fault.
Another difference is, Ryan Mallett is taller, sees the field better, and much more willing to work out of the shotgun. He will be the type of QB you have sitting back in the shotgun 55 or 60% of passing plays, and that's a good thing. Chad Henne has the dubious honor of not liking shotgun because he has to take his eyes off the defense, and ALSO not really liking play-action passes (which he showed by being three or four times more likely to throw an interception on play-action than non-play-action).
The difference on the negative side is this stuff on the cocaine and whatnot. He just can't seem to shake those rumors, and so they might be true. And Magoo is right, this isn't to be compared with a rumor that flashed around the NFL only a few days before the Draft about Dan Marino. This is a rumor that has persisted for months and that some people feel they have confirmed.
Call me naive but I think even if he has done coke before, that's kind of overblown as long as he's not still doing it. Brett Favre had a very heavy pain killer addiction. That is NOT any different. ESPN regularly sucks his d-ck as do most coaches, GMs and former players. Just saying. I've known people that have done some coke a few times in their life, it's not like their lives mirror the movie Train Spotting. And if Mallett has done that and been seen doing it (such as at a party), it's easy to see why the rumors won't die.