Chad Pennington (born July 26, 1976 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American football quarterback for the NFL's New York Jets.
Pennington played in college for Marshall University, where he set school records in several passing categories and led the school to four Mid-American Conference titles. He was selected by the Jets in the first round of the 2000 NFL draft.
After serving as a backup for his first two seasons with the Jets, Pennington was asked to start as quarterback after the team started 1-3 in the 2002 NFL season. Thanks to his play, the Jets would end up finishing with a 9-7 record, which earned them the AFC East division title. He would lead the team to an easy wild card round victory over the Indianapolis Colts before losing in the divisional round to the Oakland Raiders. He ended the year with the highest passer rating (104.2) in the NFL.
In a 2003 preseason game, Pennington injured his non-throwing hand, which forced him to sit out the first six games of the 2003 NFL season. The Jets lost their first four games that season and would end up with a 6-10 record.