The Insider: Rebuilding begins with some growing pains

Two teams enduring tough times are the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins. Yet both teams came into the season thinking playoffs.

The Jets had a great run last year under rookie coach Eric Mangini when everything seemed to go right on the field. Coupled with basically an injury-free season and an easy schedule, the Jets surprised everyone and made the playoffs.

At a minimum, Kellen Clemens' development will require patience. (US Presswire)

The Dolphins believed they could challenge for the playoffs this year because of their strong defense, the addition of Ted Ginn Jr. to help in the return game and the feeling that Trent Green and Ronnie Brown's improvement at running back would give them enough offense to be competitive on that side of the ball to make a run at a wild-card berth.

Suffice to say, in both instances, things did not go as planned. As losses mounted, the cries came to bench the starting quarterbacks. In the Jets' case it was veteran Chad Pennington, who was not playing as well, mainly in the area of turning the ball over.

For Pennington to be effective, he must make smart, quick and accurate decisions. He has to get the ball out quick to beat the defender's reaction because his arm is not strong enough to get the ball into tight spots. Some QBs can wait until the receiver finishes his break before throwing the ball with enough zip to get it there before the defender can react. Pennington cannot do that.

His problem this year was he was forcing some balls, perhaps pressing because of the losses, and he was making bad decisions which were causing turnovers and thus in some cases, leading to losses for the Jets. He was not the only problem on the team but we all know the QB gets most of the blame.

The Jets had an option in former second-round pick Kellen Clemens. As the losing continued, it was inevitable Clemens was going to get his chance. Herein lies the problem. It is often said the most popular player on a team is the backup QB, and that seemed to be the case with Clemens as the fans even cheered him when he entered a game in Week 1 after Pennington was hurt.

Now Clemens is playing and struggling. This should not be a surprise. Even though Clemens is a talented prospect, he is inexperienced. Add the facts he was not the starter through the offseason and training camp and thus did not get all of those reps with the first team. He is not as prepared as he would have been if that had happened.

But patience must prevail, not only with Jets fans but, more important, with the Jets themselves. Now is the time when the organization has to be mentally tough. This is not going to look pretty for a while. In fact, Pennington could probably win you a couple more games this year.

What would that get you? Nothing. Clemens' growing pains are something you are going to have to live with.

Your "victories" are going to have to come in seeing Clemens get better. The improvements will not necessarily come in consecutive weeks but over a period of time. You most certainly will lose more often then you win and might not really have a true feel for him until next year, when he has a whole offseason and preseason under his belt.

As far as the Dolphins go, they are even in a tougher situation. Their season fell apart when a couple of things happened -- the defense suffered a number of injuries and some players seemed to get "old" all of a sudden. Then Trent Green was injured and they lost Ronnie Brown for the year.

The team has continued to play hard despite not winning a game, as have the Jets, which is a credit to both coaches.

John Beck is certainly their future, but as a rookie he is even more inexperienced than Clemens. The same patience has to prevail in Miami as in New York. The season is shot. The future is all you have. People must be patient as they watch their QB of the future learn his trade without his top running back.

The Dolphins have been searching for a QB since Dan Marino retired. Beck, who was taken in the second round, is the highest-drafted QB the Dolphins have taken since Marino. Dolphins management must understand the team will lose games that Cleo Lemon might win this year and next, but in the long run Beck will win more.

Both teams are going to lose more games with these young QBs than they would otherwise. This is something that is not easy for the fans and ownership to watch, but these games are the definition of patience and the rebuilding of a franchise.

That is where both of these franchises are right now.