Lenny P Tipsheet: on Henson release
• No team is going to claim Drew Henson, officially released by the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday but cut in the mind of coach Bill Parcells long ago, off the waiver wire. Doing so would mean a team would have to assume Henson's contract and, with his base salaries guaranteed through the 2011 season, it simply isn't going to happen. That's not to say that, once Henson clears waivers, he won't generate some interest. The guy is still only 26-years-old and he's got to be as good as some of the players holding down No. 3 jobs on depth charts around the league.
The problems with Henson seem at least two-fold: First, his arm strength isn't nearly as good as advertised. Second, he plays tentatively, holds the ball too long, and isn't a quick decision-maker. Watching him during the NFL Europe League training camp in February, it was obvious the ball just doesn't come out quickly enough and that his mind is too cluttered. It seemed to be the classic case of a player who has been over-coached and whose game was too programmed. The staff of the Rhein Fire noted that it wanted Henson to have more fun, to play with some recklessness, but that never seemed to be the case. Indeed, there were times during the training camp in Tampa when former Hawaii star Timmy Chang, who is in camp with Philadelphia, was the much purer passer of the two.
Henson is a terrific kid, a guy who forfeited $12 million of the six-year, $17 million baseball contract he signed with the New York Yankees to return to football, so here's hoping he gets a chance somewhere. Henson has the option of taking a lump-sum payment of about $2.6 million from the Cowboys or just collecting checks on an annual basis, with the salaries totaling close to $3.5 million.
The problems with Henson seem at least two-fold: First, his arm strength isn't nearly as good as advertised. Second, he plays tentatively, holds the ball too long, and isn't a quick decision-maker. Watching him during the NFL Europe League training camp in February, it was obvious the ball just doesn't come out quickly enough and that his mind is too cluttered. It seemed to be the classic case of a player who has been over-coached and whose game was too programmed. The staff of the Rhein Fire noted that it wanted Henson to have more fun, to play with some recklessness, but that never seemed to be the case. Indeed, there were times during the training camp in Tampa when former Hawaii star Timmy Chang, who is in camp with Philadelphia, was the much purer passer of the two.
Henson is a terrific kid, a guy who forfeited $12 million of the six-year, $17 million baseball contract he signed with the New York Yankees to return to football, so here's hoping he gets a chance somewhere. Henson has the option of taking a lump-sum payment of about $2.6 million from the Cowboys or just collecting checks on an annual basis, with the salaries totaling close to $3.5 million.
posted by The Gryphon at 5:27 PM
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