Dolphins dodging Pennington questions

DAVIE, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins dodged questions about acquiring Chad Pennington on Thursday, fueling speculation that they would go after the former New York Jets quarterback.

Pennington was released by the Jets to make room for Brett Favre, who was acquired by New York in a trade with the Green Bay Packers a day earlier.

Dolphins Vice President of Football Operations Bill Parcells drafted Pennington with the 18th overall pick in the 2000 draft when Parcells was the Jets' general manager. And the team's struggles at quarterback in training camp would seem to make Miami a candidate to nab Pennington.

Dolphins coach Tony Sparano was mum when asked earlier in the day if Miami would be interested in acquiring Pennington, who ranks first in NFL history among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 attempts with a 65.6 completion percentage.

"I'm happy with the people we have here right now," Sparano said. "We have three quarterbacks right now on the team, and we're finding it hard right now to get all three of those guys the work they need. But we're doing that."

The Dolphins open the preseason Saturday night at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Miami has kept its starting quarterback for the game — between Josh McCown, second-year man John Beck and rookie Chad Henne — a secret.

The Dolphins' quarterbacks were barraged with questions Thursday regarding the trade that sent Brett Favre from Green Bay to the New York Jets and the subsequent release of Pennington. All three gave their impressions of how accomplished a quarterback Favre is, but said they are not paying attention to trade rumors.

As for Miami's starter against Tampa?

McCown is listed first on the depth chart, but only because of his age. Still, he is the slight favorite to earn the nod because of his experience over Beck and Henne.

Henne, the rookie from Michigan, seemed well-schooled on how to answer such tough questions. He even cracked a smile when pressed on what the rotation at quarterback will be against Tampa Bay.

"Yeah, we know," Henne said. "But we were told not to tell you."