Film Room: How Jaguars rookie Blake Bortles can learn from veteran Chad Henne
Gus Bradley knows it can go either way. He’s seen young quarterbacks sit and still disappoint when it’s their turn.
Flashback to Week 10 of the 2009 NFL season. The Miami Dolphins are hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Chad Henne is a first-year starter in his second season with the Dolphins. Bradley is the Bucs’ linebackers coach. He’s prepared for Henne the entire week.
The scouting report reads a traditional drop back passer, 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, tough and strong. He takes shots deep when he has one-on-one opportunities, hanging in the pocket amid chaos. He confidently tests tightly shut windows down the sideline and in between the safeties. He’s at his best throwing down the middle because it’s the easiest and fastest throw.
During the game, Bradley focuses on forcing Henne to throw outside. His linebackers shut down the middle with their Tampa-2 coverage and Henne struggles. He throws down the sideline in tight windows the entire game and holds the ball longer than usual, taking a beating. On one play late in the fourth quarter, he climbs the pocket under pressure and carelessly throws the ball into one of Bradley’s linebackers’ hands.
The game ends with promise and disappointment. He makes big throws and stands tough in the pocket, helping put together a last-second game-winning drive, but completes less than 55 percent of his passes and averages less than six yards per attempt. He throws one touchdown and one interception.
Five years later, Henne is still inconsistent and hasn’t lived up to expectations, despite sitting his first year and learning from one of the game’s smartest quarterbacks, Chad Pennington.
As a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Henne has been tasked with mentoring rookie Blake Bortles this season, and Bradley, who once planned against Henne, is now planning with him as the Jaguars' head coach.
Henne still shows glimpses of the quarterback Bradley once faced. He remains tough and strong. He has developed into a pure progression passer, sometimes going through his reads like his ABCs. He’s a game manager at best, but every now and then he makes a play like he did against the Chicago Bears in Jacksonville's second preseason game.
It’s third-and-12, and the Jags have called a pin concept to the trips side on Henne’s right.
He takes a three-step drop from shotgun and looks to that side. The tight end is running a clear-out route and takes the middle linebacker with him. The slot receiver runs five yards and hooks inside, bringing the outside linebacker closer to him. And behind him, the outside receiver runs a dig route behind the same outside linebacker and toward the middle, where Henne hits him with a high laser that lets him run across the field for a 20-yard gain.
The knifing throw is one upper-echelon quarterbacks make with more regularity than Henne does. He hasn't developed because the game is too fast for him. He seems to find the checkdown more and more as he throws the ball. But this weakness is also a lesson for Bortles.
Bortles was the third-overall pick in the 2014 draft and will sit his rookie season like Henne did. He is more talented than Henne was but has some of the same traits: confidence, arm strength, and toughness. He’s willing to stay in the pocket an extra second in exchange for the big play. He’ll also put enough air and touch on the ball to complete the difficult pass, like he did against the Bucs in Jacksonville's first preseason game.
He’s under center with twins right on first-and-10. He takes a five-step drop and beautifully floats a high-arcing pass over the Bucs’ linebackers and in between the two deep safeties, to his receiver’s back shoulder for a gain of 20. It’s nearly indefensible.
The throw shows raw talent and potential, but it’s a near perfect setting. Early down, clean pocket, linebackers taking false steps forward and creating a hole in the middle.
Despite his talent, Bortles is still learning. His footwork isn’t consistent yet, with his hips not constantly rotating, causing his throws to fall short and inaccurate. His ball placement isn’t always proper. And he’s yet to see a gameday NFL defense.
The late rotation by the safeties. The cornerbacks playing press-bail. The linebackers showing in-the-face pressure only to undercut the hot throw. The defensive line stunting and throwing their hands up after reading the upfield shoulder. But that’s what Henne’s for.
Henne has seen a lot of it. He isn’t able to decode it as fast on the field as he does in the meeting room, but he can show Bortles in the meetings and then the rookie can apply it with consistency when it’s his turn. That’s what Bradley is hoping for, at least.