Chad Pennington told the New York Times that if he signed with Miami it would be because he liked the situation, not because he was “trying to prove a point.”

But he will get a chance to do just that – and he’ll get that chance right away. Pennington signed a two-year deal to that likely makes him the starting quarterback for the Dolphins when they start the season in Miami against Pennington’s former New York Jets.

While those crazy scheduling elves occasionally create some interesting story lines don’t expect Pennington to provide a panacea of any kind in Miami. While he has the all-time high completion percentage for quarterbacks with more than 1,500 attempts and he is likely a short-term step up from Josh McCown, John Beck and Chad Henne, Pennington joins a team short on offensive weapons.

Ronnie Brown, who is recovering from an ACL tear, and Ricky Williams, who is recovering from … well, he’s recovering from all sorts of issues over the years, provide potentially a solid-or-better one-two running back punch. But competing for the starting wide receiver positions are the undersized-and-young, but talented Ted Ginn, Derek Hagan, David Kircus, Ernest Wilford, and Greg Camarillo, among others.

And while the offensive line may be improved, left tackle Jake Long is a rookie, Justin Smiley is a free agent import, and Trey Darilek is … well, I don’t know who Trey Darilek is, but miamidolphins.com currently lists him as the starting right guard (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports, however, that rookie Shawn Murphy appears to have overtaken him on the depth chart).

Look, the Dolphins of 2008 are better than the team that went 1-15 last year. And with Bill Parcells, Tony Sparano and co. running things they’re likely to continue improving. But that team last year was hideous and it’s going to take a couple years before the Dolphins resemble anything that will be playoff-competitive.

If Pennington survives to see a couple years from now, however, he might get a chance to lead that semi-playoff competitive team.