Cutler is Clear Cut
By Bernie Lincicome
Nothing in sports quite matches a spat between the quarterback and the head coach. Good stuff. Can’t wait for the next update.
For the long emptiness between seasons, except for the always over explored college draft, nothing fills the daily need like he said, he said.
And consider this: Jay Cutler is not only street conversation in Denver but all over. In Detroit. In Chicago. In Tampa. In Nashville. In New York. Anywhere a quarterback savior is needed there is Jay C. Can we get him? What’ll take?
That is all anyone sees, a quarterback to make their team better, a quarterback for the long haul, a quarterback that just needs some love.
In Denver sides must be chosen. Who’s the brat and who’s the punk? Can’t have both. Must pick one.
Step back and consider the proposition coolly. Here are the Broncos, a quarterback away from being the most awful team in football. Except they have that quarterback.
Knowing how bad the Broncos are, a defense full of warts, a running game that is higgely piggely, running backs pulled out of empty pockets, a receiving corps that is part lunch and part dessert, depending on how Brandon Marshall feels, and there shining above it all is the one true asset, Jay Cutler.
Put Cutler over there. Now over here let’s find a fixer. Let’s find somebody who can with wisdom, will and experience pull this altogether. Let’s call him Coach Mike.
No, wait. Can’t do that. Coach Mike is gone. Coach Blank Slate is here. And to help him is front office Infant X to generally manage all the pieces that are kept and those that are coming and those that are just wishes on a blackboard.
Let’s weigh it all. Pro Bowl quarterback. Pot Luck.
Who in his right mind does not go with Pro Bowl quarterback?
All over the NFL invitations are wrapped in bribes. You don’t want Cutler, we’ll take him? He doesn’t want you? We’ll take him.
The owner is going with Pot Luck. Well, it worked in Baltimore. New coach, new quarterback equals playoffs. Where else? Miami. Atlanta.
It has never worked in Denver, not for this owner. It took veteran quarterback, new coach to make it work. When the new coach became an old coach with new quarterbacks, it didn’t work.
This is all unchartered territory, fairly young quarterback, red raw new coach. But what is indisputable is the quarterback has a greater future than the coach.
If Jay Cutler stays in Denver he will outlast Josh McDaniels. If he is traded away from Denver, he will outlast Josh McDaniels. If Jay Cutler is not in Denver, the Broncos are the doormats of the NFL.
Around whom or what do the Broncos then build? Coach Blank Slate? The best prize in the draft if they can get him? That is five years minimum.
In five years Jay Cutler will have led whichever team he is quarterbacking to a championship, maybe a Super Bowl title.
Unless it is Detroit. And if Cutler is traded to Detroit that will just be spite. Not that this new bunch running the Broncos is above spite.
