Quarterbacks generally come into the league with either too much or too little hype, and that dividing line seems to be with the first pick in the second round of the NFL Draft. As it goes, fantasy rankings early in a quarterback’s starting career tend to coincide with where he was drafted. Sure, there are a few exceptions like JaMarcus Russell (1st overall) or Matt Schaub (90th overall); but more often than not if a player was drafted in the first, whether it’s warranted or otherwise, he usually gets some good fantasy mileage out of that inflated rookie contract. If a team spends their first round pick on a quarterback, expectations for him are through the roof.

Take Jason Campbell for example. Despite a late first round pick at 25th overall, Campbell came into Washington with almost unreasonable expectations. Anyone even slightly removed from the situation knew he had a limited ceiling, yet Daniel Snyder traded up to draft him and immediately he was expected to carry them into the post-season.

If Snyder had held off to either draft Campbell in the second round or let another organization have him, there wouldn’t have been such pressure on Campbell to succeed. In almost the blink of an eye it reached the point that Washington was firing the offensive coordinator every season and replacing the head coach every couple. The inverse of this, is if you’re taken in the second round or lower, especially at quarterback, expectations diminish. Sure, you’re still a quarterback and you’re always going to receive too much blame when you lose and too much credit when you win. But when taken in the second round as opposed to the first, you’re given the opportunity to ease into the position of starting quarterback. Just ask Chad Henne.

For the uninitiated, Henne went to the University of Michigan and spent the majority of his disappointing and injury prone senior season after losing their season and home opener to Appalachian State, a 1-AA school with a small fraction of the resources they have in Ann Arbor. Even a convincing win over an up-and-coming Florida team in Tim Tebow’s Heisman season couldn’t salvage the damage Henne did to his draft stock that senior year. As a result, he plunged from a projected top twenty pick all the way down to Miami at 58th overall.

Flash forward three years later, and the Dolphins have a potential all-pro capable of throwing down-field and for the first time in a long time, they have a quarterback who can keep up with the speed of their receivers. Henne, like most rookie quarterbacks, probably wasn’t ready for the NFL when he first entered the league. But coming in without any fanfare — unlike Jason Campbell — has enabled him to learn from Tony Sparano, learn from Chad Pennington, and nurture his God-given talents. At the end of 2009, he threw for over 300 yards in three of his last five games, and in week  17 he completed 16 of 20 passes, proving that even with a limited workload, he was still efficient.

When it comes to fantasy football, he’s still in that tweener phase in which he isn’t anywhere near adequate enough to be your starter (because sometimes he only throws twenty passes a game), but if you only need him for a bye-week/in case of an injury, it isn’t a laughable offense to draft him. In fact, for Keeper and Dynasty leagues, I’d value Henne as something of a low risk asset. You shouldn’t have to use a single digit draft pick on him, yet assuming he improves on his stillborn carelessness (he threw 14 interceptions to 12 touchdowns in 2009) his value is likely exponentially higher than where it’s projected.

[ad#U Boobs 120 Left]The one concern I have about Henne is that the Dolphins offense doesn’t always call for a lot of quarterback production (as proven by the aforementioned week 17 game). Considering they still have Ricky Williams, and Ronnie Brown is returning, there isn’t a lot of urgency to drastically alter the offensive scheme to favor the passing game. However, if you’re only drafting Henne as a backup (and that’s all you should draft him for), between the acquisition of Brandon Marshall and the progress he demonstrated last season, Henne is more than serviceable, and has the potential to have a breakout season in 2010.

Mind you, I’m bound by Ohio law to loathe Chad Henne like I would any former Wolverine. So my favorable prognostication for Henne’s upcoming season (and his career) isn’t derived from any sort of bias. In fact it’s counter-intuitive to everything I want to believe about him as a professional. But the truth is, successful quarterbacks introduction to the league is seldom indicative of what kind of career path they’ll take (Remember Peyton Manning’s rookie season?), and Henne hasn’t been immune to such tribulations.

But he’s a talented, traditional pocket-passer with a huge arm and the best brand of motivation available: dejected motivation. This is a guy who never beat Ohio State while playing at Michigan (4 years starting), was overlooked by every other team in the league on draft day and has never been regarded as among the elite on any level he’s played at. In short, assuming your league has 10+ teams, then there won’t be a better low rent quarterback without a ceiling than Chad Henne.

Unapparent QB’s I would draft him over: Kyle Orton, Marc Sanchez, Jason Campbell, David Gerrard, Joe Flacco (sue me), Matt Stafford, Sam Bradford, Josh Freeman, whoever starts for the Cardinals

Unapparent QB’s I would draft before him: Jay Cutler, Eli Manning, Carson Palmer, Donovan McNabb, Matt Ryan, Kevin Kolb…I think you can tell where the general dividing line is.