Come Again? CP Wins Comeback Award

UPDATE:  For his roll in handing the Jets their season ending loss and the Dolphins 1st division championship since 2001, Chad Pennington was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week today as well.

For the second time in his career Chad Pennington has won the AP NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award.  

Pennington won the award the first time while with the NY Jets in 2006 after coming back from two rotator cuff surgeries.  This time around he cameback from being benched last year and cut two weeks before the season began.

After leaving New York to make room for the acquired Brett Favre, Pennington was immediately contacted by the Dolphins and was given a contract that was identical to the one he held in NY.  The Phins made no attempt to restructure his existing deal.  The risk payed off.

"“I think in my experience over the last nine years is that when you’re winning, you feel appreciated; when you’re losing, it gets a little tough,” he said. “That’s just part of winning and losing, especially in this league because the stakes are high, a lot of eyes watching you, both individually and as a team.“I don’t think the appreciation level ever changes, you just have to understand that there’s always going to be highs and lows. And it’s always to the extreme because the middle of the road doesn’t sail and it’s not exciting. The extremes, that’s what’s exciting, and that’s what everybody leans on.”"

Chad Pennington came to Miami and immediately embraced his teammates and the team itself as his own.  On his first night as a Dolphin, Pennington was shown introducing himself to the team during the Phins pre-season game against the Chiefs.  Pennington who has been the leader of the team and an inspiration to the defense as well quickly made his presence known in his first days of training camp with Miami.

The Dolphins had an issue with receivers consistently dropping passes from the array of QB’s on their roster.  Pennington, after seeing the same degree of effort on his first outing openly voiced his displeasure to the young wide-outs.  The Dolphins have been one of the teams with the lowest amount of dropped passes all season.

Chad Pennington won the award by 3 votes over Jake Delhomme of Carolina and Kerry Collins of Tennessee.  Fellow teammates Joey Porter and Ronnie Brown also each received votes.  3 for Porter and 1 for Brown.