After a month or so of turmoil with new head coach Josh McDaniels, Jay Cutler was finally sent out of Denver Thursday.The Broncos traded the unhappy quarterback to the Chicago Bears for quarterback Kyle Orton, two first-round picks in the 2009 and 2010, along with a third-round pick.
This is a absolutely a great pick-up for the Bears. For a team that has struggled to find their "franchise quarterback" for many years, this is huge. Cutler will be their quarterback of the future.
Josh McDaniels clearly screwed up on this one. Let me just recap what he did.
He leaves his spot in New England as the offensive coordination and takes over as head coach of the Denver Broncos after long-time coach Mike Shanahan is fired, which was a mistake by the way. But after he arrives in Denver, one of the first things he does as the new coach is he tries to bring his quarterback from New England, Matt Cassell, to Denver.
So what was the mistake here? Well, McDaniels made many here.
First, he comes to a team in which Jay Cutler is the established offensive leader on, and tries to remove him as the starting quarterback by bringing in Matt Cassell. After this, he wasn't truthful with Cutler at all about this whole situation.
Cutler had every reason to be upset with McDaniels and not to trust him. Why should he? I would be upset too if a young, first time head coach came to take over my team and go behind my back to replace me with a quarterback who just so happened to be the beneficiary of an injury to the leagues top quarterback.
Did McDaniels forget that Cutler was a Pro-Bowl selection and set the record for the most passing yards in Broncos history? Let's not forget that John Elway was once the quarterback for this team.
Throw out the fact that the Bears gave up a number of draft picks and their starting quarterback, because that doesn't matter. The Bears still got the better end of the deal on this one.
Traditionally, the Bears haven't done much with their drafts picks anyway, so picking up a guy like Cutler, a guy that franchises can be built around, was much more valuable than drafting an offensive or defensive lineman in the draft.
McDaniels will soon realize that he made a colossal rookie mistake, and the Bears have finally solved their long-term quarterback issues.
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McDaniels made many mistakes through this process no doubt, but let me ask, is Cutler without blame in this situation?
ReplyDeleteMcDaniels biggest mistake was lying. Really it would have been crazy for Cutler to be upset if Denver was upfront about possibly trading him, but I'd bet Cutler would make it just as big of a deal as he did. Players being traded is the nature of the business, and if he can't deal with that then tough luck. Had Denver been attempting to trade for Peyton Manning or Brady would it have been as big of a deal? To the general public probably not, but to Jay Cutler most likely yes, because unfortunately for him he probably believes that he is on the same level as both those guys.
Well, the way I understood the whole situation was the McDaniels was pretty shady about wanting Cassell there. I think that's why Cutler was upset, and I would be too. He was clearly the offensive leader, and to have your new head coach want to bring in a new QB right away is just a smack in the face to Cutler, and he had every right to be upset.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, and to most the fact that he wanted Cassell over Cutler is absurd, but I can at least understand it. Sure Cutler seems to be the better QB right now, but given the fact that Cassell was essentially a rookie last year, if you compare his rookie year to Cutler's, his was probably better. McDaniels is a rookie head coach and feels more comfortable working with a QB he has worked with before. Thats not so terrible. Again, lying was the big mistake here, and Cutler did have the right to be upset, but it should have never gone so far that Cutler got traded. Being upset and not answering any phone calls from your coach and owner for TEN days are two different things, and in this situation Jay has proven to be nothing but what many already perceived him to be; a big baby.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt he is a great talent, but unless he proves that he can deal with criticism and actually possess mature leadership qualities, he will never reach his full potential.
And and lets not forget Kyle Orton is not a bad QB, and the Broncos got very good compensation in this deal, so to be declaring a winner in this deal already is a little quick until we see how Orton performs and who Denver takes with all these draft picks.
Well, reports came out yesterday that Jay Cutler denied the allegations of him not answering his phone. He saw some analyst at a UFC fight and they talked, and he said that Denver had not even tried to contact him. Mike and Mike did a segment on it.
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