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Happy to have him Groh thrilled that Pennington was around at No. 18
Posted: Friday April 21, 2000 04:02 PM
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) -- New York Jets coach Al Groh thought the Jets had a good shot at landing former Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington in the NFL draft. So he wasn't surprised when the Jets nabbed Pennington in the first round with the 18th pick. Groh said he began thinking seriously about drafting the former Marshall star when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos didn't take him. The Steelers had the eighth pick and the Broncos had the 15th pick. "As we mapped out a lot of possible situations over preceding days, we could see some circumstances where this might occur," Groh said. "So there had been some preliminary discussions as to if Chad would be available at a certain spot, what would we consider doing." "It wasn't like 'Whoa, now what do we do?' We could see that if he got by certain teams that he could very well end up at 18 so then we were considering it as a strong possibility." Groh said the Jets drafted Pennington because they need another backup for injury-prone Vinny Testaverde. But don't look for Pennington to start next season. Groh said he doesn't want Pennington to face the pressure of being a rookie starter. Groh should know about that. He was an assistant at New England when Drew Bledsoe struggled as a rookie starter.
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