A league source tells us that Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington will earn $4 million in 2008.  He’ll get the money in the form of a $500,000 guaranteed roster bonus, and a $3.5 million base salary.

It’s a $2 million reduction in what he was due to earn from the Jets.

The Dolphins could avoid the salary obligation by releasing Pennington before the start of the regular season, if the team ultimately decides that he won’t make the team any better than it would be with Chad Henne or Josh McCown or John Beck at the helm.  At this point, such a move appears unlikely.

We’re also told that reports of a two-year, $11.5 million contract for Pennington were just flat wrong.  His two-year deal is worth only (only?) $7.9 million.

Amazingly, the contract doesn’t include a seven-figure poo-or-get-off-the-pot roster bonus payable to Pennington in March 2009, which would have either resulted in a sizeable check or a ticket to free agency.  Instead, Pennington is scheduled to earn a base salary of $3.9 million next year. 

As a result, the Fins can squat on Pennington for the entire offseason and then dump him during training camp without consequence.

Given that Pennington had just been run out of New York under identical circumstances, you’d think that he would have wanted some protection against having it happen to him again.