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Life may be rough for Aaron Rodgers in the wake of the Brett Favre trade, and I'd hate to be one of the dozen ESPN reporters who got scooped by Jay Glazer, but the biggest loser in the Favre trade may be Chad Pennington.Until Favre was picked up, Pennington still had a chance to be the Jets starter. Now he's released, and the reality is that it's going to be tough for him to find a situation nearly as friendly as the one he had with the Jets.
As we hit the midway point of most training camps, one thing that's clear is that there aren't a whole lot of teams who are looking for a potential starting quarterback. There aren't a whole lot of teams where Pennington would be a clear upgrade over the current talent.
The reality is that a team that signs Pennington has to know what they're getting. Whether you make him the starter or the backup, you have to have a special playbook set up for Pennington. At this point he's incapable of throwing the ball consistently more than 20-yards downfield, and forget about calling out routes to the sidelines. Everything has to be short slants, hooks and screens. The Jets were willing to make that sacrifice, even if it meant that a two-minute offense for New York consisted of an amazingly painful series of five-yard dump offs.Because he has a pulse and has thrown an NFL pass, he might be an upgrade over the QBs in Chicago, but the Bears are seemingly stubborn about going down in flames with Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman. Similarly, the Vikings keep talking about how Tarvaris Jackson is their man, and they also are excited about backup Gus Frerotte.
If you're looking for teams where Pennington would fit, you could turn to Miami or Kansas City. Pennington never played for Bill Parcells when Parcells ran the Jets--he arrived a year later, but he would be a safer bet than John Beck, and the Chiefs are rolling the dice with a Brodie Croyle/Damon Huard/Tyler Thigpen combo-pack. But Baltimore may the team with the most reason to give Pennington a call. They already are used to running an offense completely reliant on short passes (Steve McNair couldn't throw the deep ball either), and Pennington might be a more useful immediate starter than Kyle Boller on a team with plenty of aging stars. He'd be the interim fill-in until Joe Flacco matures. And do remember that there were rumors of a Pennington to Baltimore trade around draft time.
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