Intangibles...

From time to time you hear 'intangibles' referred to when describing a upper echelon player in the NFL. 

Chad Pennington, one of my all time favorite NFL players, is well know for having a weak arm. For a while he was also looked at as injury prone. He has been a starter in this league for years and made millions of dollars. He has also won a few games along the way. The NY Jets released him last year during training camp and he was a free agent for less than 24hrs. Why would a weak armed, fragile QB continue to win the starting job year after year and make multiple playoff runs? 

Because of his 'intangibles'! Chad is a true leader, meaning when he takes the field and enters the huddle he commands respect. He's also a team player that has the innate ability to rally the troops and get more out of them than they probably knew they had. It also helps that he is smart with the ball and is deadly accurate. These are all things you can't teach. 

We drafted Kellen Clemens in the early second round of the 2006 draft that also yielded Mangold, Ferguson, and Leon Washington. I am a big believer in karma and that draft had good karma. The other 3 names I mentioned have become important reliable players for us and Kellen is a part of their draft class. They started together and I believe they can  win together.

Clemens has been in a very unique position with this team. He is entering his 4th season and has spent the entire time in the same offensive system. He has had the chance to start a handful of games. He was able to play behind two very different and significant veteran QB's in Pennington and Favre. If you could combine Favre's good qualities and Penningtons strengths you would have the perfect signal caller. Kellen has a strong arm and is pretty mobile for a QB. 

I was under the impression that the front office had every intention of starting Sanchez this year and most likely from opening day. I recently saw an interview with Brian Shottenhiemer on SNY's 'Jets Nation' where he compared our current QB situation to the 2004 season when he was the QB coach for the Chargers. 

Philip Rivers was the first round draft pick and QB of the future in San Diego and Drew Breeze was the young signal caller who was quickly becoming an after thought. After a long preseason battle Breeze emerged as the starter. He proceeded to develop into one of the premiere QB's in the league.   

I for one will be rooting for Clemens to be our starter in 09'. If he shows he can win games and get the job done I have no problem sending Sanchez to an NFC team for the right compensation somewhere down the road. I know he's not the flashy choice, but he shows a lot of promise. 

Character, a solid work ethic, natural leadership, and an unrelenting desire to win... these are the intangibles that any champion needs to have. I see some of these characteristics in Kellen, the rest needs to be proven on the field. I just hope he gets a chance.

He won't make it to the pages of GQ Magazine anytime soon, but he may just be our next franchise QB. 

J.Wagner