Chad Pennington, welcome to the elite world of the highest-paid players in your sport.
Now, without contract uncertainties to cloud your head, you can go help win that championship you’re dying to bring to New York.
Pennington, the Jets’ present and future at quarterback, enhanced his status as the franchise yesterday when he agreed to a lucrative seven-year contract extension worth a total of $64.197 million in new money, including $18 million in guaranteed bonus money.
Pennington, the 18th overall selection in the 2000 draft, will average $9.172 million per year under this deal, which was consummated yesterday by his IMG agent, Tom Condon, and Jet assistant GM Mike Tannenbaum, neither of whom was available for comment.
“I am extremely excited about being a Jet for a long time,” Pennington said last night. “Most importantly, I am looking forward to leading our organization to the ultimate prize, a Super Bowl Championship.”
Herman Edwards said, “Chad has all the characteristics of a true role model. He has great command and presence on the football field and is a team leader. Jet fans need to know one thing about Chad Pennington: He’ll do whatever it takes to lead this team to a championship.”
Pennington’s yearly salary average will now almost double that of Curtis Martin (about $5.2 million), who was the team’s highest-paid player. That, according to Martin, is just fine with him.
“I don’t say it because he’s my teammate and I think he’s a good guy, but Chad is a good quarterback and as smart as they come,” Martin said. “When I look at him mentally, there are very few quarterbacks I see in the same light – like Peyton Manning – who mentally see the whole game, the whole picture. You know they know the game so well, almost like a chess guru.
“He has a football mind. Whether it’s natural or not I don’t know. I know he’s prepared as well as anyone, and he’s always here studying or lifting weights or going over the game plan. He should have built his house next to our facility.”
Though it might sound like a cliche and a bit far-fetched, Pennington, who lives a rather simple life out of the high-profile spotlight, is a lot less about the money than he is about bringing a winner to New York.
While the new contract might sound like an exorbitant amount to give to a player who’s yet to start a full 16-game NFL season, Pennington has shown enough about what he can do. Pennington, who possesses intangibles that go far beyond how far he can throw the ball, has a chance, with a big 2004 season, to catapult himself into the top-5 echelon of NFL quarterbacks.
“He has that charisma,” Edwards said. “He has that ability with the way he plays, with his passion for the game, his mannerisms. He has all that. What he has to do is put a couple of trophies behind him, and if he can do that, he can run for president. He can do whatever he wants, especially in New York.”
Pennington is desperate to bring a title to the Jets. If anything, he’s sheepish about this contract because he knows better than anyone that it’s based on what he can potentially bring to the Jets rather than on what he’s done so far.
Privately, Pennington, who missed the first six games of the 2003 season with a fractured left hand and wrist, which has sine healed, expressed to the Jets that, whenever his deal was done, he preferred not to have it announced in a splashy press conference with cameras, flashbulbs, flowers and fanfare.
His performance in 2002, when he took over as the team’s starter after the fourth game of the season and led the NFL with a 104.2 quarterback rating, passing for 3,120 yards, 22 TDs and 6 INTs, didn’t hurt his case, either, of course.
