Chad Pennington played a great game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, completing 29 of 39 passes for 339 yards. But simply by suiting up, Pennington accomplished something he had never achieved in his six previous NFL seasons: He started a 14th game. The oft-injured Jets quarterback has stayed healthy and played well enough through these 14 games that whether or not he leads the Jets to the playoffs, he proved many skeptics wrong.

Just a few months ago, the team’s brass didn’t show much enthusiasm for Pennington. General manager Mike Tannenbaum made finding another quarterback a top off-season priority. He used a second-round pick drafting Kellen Clemens from the University of Oregon and a sixth-round pick trading for Patrick Ramsey from the Washington Redskins. Coach Eric Mangini started training camp by saying all three quarterbacks — as well as the since released Brooks Bollinger — had an equal opportunity to win the starting job.

But as this season winds down, the doubts about Pennington’s ability to lead the team have disappeared, and there’s no question he’ll be the starter heading into training camp next year. Although Pennington has had some low points this season (notably an 11-of-28, 108-yard October loss to the Cleveland Browns), he is still a smart player, an accurate passer, and a good fit with the game plans called by Mangini’s offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer.

Pennington is unlikely ever to match the lofty expectations Jets fans had for him in 2002, his first season as a starter, when he led the league in passing. But by starting every game this season, hanging in long enough to reach career highs in completions and attempts (as well as withstand a career-high 28 sacks), he has shown that he is also not as fragile as he was made out to be last year.

That perceived fragility is why Mangini and Tannenbaum weren’t fully sold on Pennington before the season. His injury history is well known: In the 2003 preseason he suffered a broken non-throwing hand after being hit by Giants linebacker Brandon Short. He missed the first six games of the season. In 2004, he injured his rotator cuff and missed three games, then had surgery on it after the season. In 2005, he played only three games before needing rotator-cuff surgery again. With Pennington’s past, Mangini and Tannenbaum would have been derelict in their duties if they hadn’t brought in other quarterbacks.

Aside from his inability to stay healthy, Pennington has often been criticized for his lack of arm strength — Cris Carter, the longtime NFL receiver who now works as a television analyst, compared Pennington’s arm to a “water pistol.” Although the Jets will rely mostly on short passes as long as Pennington is the starter, his arm is stronger than he gets credit for. Against Minnesota, Pennington put zip on his ball all day and completed several impressive deep passes, including a 50-yard strike to Justin McCareins in the first quarter and a 21-yard touchdown to Laveranues Coles in the second. And Pennington’s accurate, efficient passing ability outweighs any limitations related to his arm strength — his completion percentage this season of 65.0% is just shy of his 65.3% career rate, the second highest in NFL history.

Pennington’s rapport with his receivers is a big reason for his great completion percentage. Pennington and Laveranues Coles have a natural chemistry. Without Pennington last year, Coles caught just 73 passes for 845 yards. With two games left this season, he has 87 catches for 1,065 yards. Pennington has also developed a good connection with Jerricho Cotchery, the third-year receiver who contributed mostly on special teams in his first two seasons but has emerged as an excellent offensive threat this year.

Pennington’s strong season should help the long-term development of Clemens. The 30-year-old Pennington is seven years older than Clemens, so if the rookie is as good as the Jets thought he was when they drafted him, he’ll be in the league long after Pennington is gone. Pennington spent two years holding a clipboard on the sidelines while Vinny Testaverde was the Jets’ quarterback, and having that time to learn the game without the pressure of being the starter helped his progress. Clemens, who has thrown only one pass this year, will likely follow the same route. Ramsey, on the other hand, looks unlikely to contribute to the Jets, so the sixth-round pick the team gave up for him was wasted. Sixth-round draft picks often fail to make the roster, though.

To assuage the Jets’ concerns about his shoulder, Pennington agreed before this season to restructure his contract, meaning the Jets have him locked in for the future at a reasonable price. Pennington has earned his keep and established that he’ll head into 2007 as the Jets’ starting quarterback, but the ultimate testament to his season is that it’s late December and the Jets aren’t yet ready to think about next year.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.