Henne Officially Done For The Year, Dolphins Sign Rosenfels

Added on Oct 06, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Chad Henne is officially done for the year. The Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback opted to have surgery for his separated shoulder and the team has placed him on the injured reserved list. The current plan is to have Matt Moore start with newly signed Sage Rosenfels as a backup. In any case, it’s a situation that the 0-4 Dolphins most definitely didn’t need.

Henne’s contract expires after this season meaning he may have played his final game in a Miami uniform. Coach Tony Sparano had these thoughts:

“It’s really disappointing. The kid’s got a lot invested in this thing with the team.”

Teammate Jake Long shared this disappointment:

“It’s tough. Chad’s one of those guys, he’s like me, he’ll do anything he can to get out on the field. But he can’t.”

Matt Moore is ‘the man’ now, at least for the time being–Sparano says he’s ready to go:

“It’s Matt’s job. We’ve got to get Matt ready to go. He’s a confident guy — a little different swagger to him when he gets in the huddle.”

Still, the transition from one starter to another during the season isn’t easy:

“When you lose your starting quarterback — the guy takes a ton of reps, and the next guy doesn’t. When you’re in the middle of the season, to catch those people up on reps, that’s hard to do.”

Moore becomes the 16th different starting quarterback for the Dolphins since the legendary Dan Marino retired. If he’s ineffective, Rosenfels could become #17. Rosenfels had a decent training camp with the New York Giants before falling ill with what is described as a blood disorder. He was released by the Giants and according to Sparano had the best workout of several veteran quarterbacks the team evaluated:

“Sage is experienced. He was a guy that was best in the workout.”

He wasn’t the only quarterback considered–the Dolphins also looked at Charlie Frye, JP Losman, Kellen Clemens, Jim Sorgi, Trent Edwards and Brody Croyle.

Miami does catch a break from the schedule makers–they’ve got a bye this weekend before resuming play next Monday night against the New York Jets. The team is off this weekend and Rosenfels will join the team and participate in practice beginning early next week.