Pennington Auditions For a Job During Loss

Chad Pennington says he wants to be a starting quarterback in 2008, but the Jets have little interest in giving him the job. That means his performance Sunday against the Tennessee Titans was an audition, a game that teams looking for a quarterback will scrutinize after the season to determine whether they'd be willing to make a trade with the Jets to acquire Pennington.

For the most part, those teams will like what they saw. Pennington was accurate and efficient on Sunday against one of the best defenses in the league.

The Jets lost to the Tennessee Titans 10–6, but they're long past the point in the season when one win or loss means much. It's much more important for the Jets to assess individual players, and determine which ones will be part of their rebuilding effort and which ones must be jettisoned.

Pennington is one of the ones who will almost certainly be sent packing. Once the Jets made the decision to bench him for Kellen Clemens, it meant Pennington would be gone after the season. The only question now is whether the Jets will be able to obtain anything of value for Pennington in a trade — his performance against the Titans indicates that they might.

Pennington completed 26 of 32 passes for 264 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. Those numbers aren't great, but the numbers don't tell the whole story: Pennington was poised despite getting sacked six times behind the Jets' porous offensive line, and he controlled the offense throughout the game. He even made little moves, such as lunging forward to pick up a first down on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-inches. Assuming the Jets try to trade Pennington after the season, they'll use Sunday's game as a selling point.

Pennington's favorite receiver will definitely be part of the Jets' future plans, though. Jerricho Cotchery caught eight passes for 152 yards against Tennessee, bringing his yardage total for the season to 1,054, a career high. Cotchery has a great rapport with Pennington, and the Jets need him to develop the same relationship with Clemens next year.

The Jets also need running back Thomas Jones to find his place in the offense. Jones carried 21 times for 58 yards against the Titans, giving him 1,021 yards this season. If a 1,000-yard season can ever be called a disappointment, Jones's season has been. Too often he flounders behind the Jets' offensive line, which, once again, failed to open holes for him on Sunday. The Jets' defensive effort on Sunday was solid, and despite playing against a likely playoff team on the road, they were in the game until the end. Rookie linebacker David Harris showed again that he's a player on whom the Jets can build their defense. Harris had a solid all-around game, including a sack and a forced fumble on Titans quarterback Vince Young.

Harris is the future of the franchise; Pennington is the past. But with Sunday's game, Pennington made clear that he's not done yet.