Did it ever have to come to this? Did we ever have to reach the point where the Denver Broncos are going to be more or less forced to trade their Pro Bowl quarterback? Sadly, to paraphrase the TV commercials, “You know that place where the need for authority intersects with a star player’s hurt feelings? We’re so there.” .jpg)
It doesn’t appear as if Jay Cutler is going to be able to work with Josh McDaniels. Ever. Both sides have made mistakes in this mess, but in the end, McDaniels is doing the right thing by standing firm and making sure everyone knows he’s in charge. Did he mishandle the whole Cutler-for-Matt Cassell thing? Probably. It was a bad idea, trying to acquire a guy who’s had one good year since high school and giving up a player who just made the Pro Bowl. That part of it aside, it would have been better to let Cutler know at the outset that no Bronco player was untouchable, and that while the team wasn’t looking to trade him, it was possible his name would come up and that’s just the way the business goes. Tell Cutler that ahead of time, and he’d have absolutely no grounds to be upset when it did happen.
On the other hand, McDaniels and the Bronco brass have to establish their authority, and they are absolutely right that in order to make the team better, they have to be willing to talk about any and every player on the roster if a name comes up in trade talks. Who cares who initiated the discussion? That’s all it is – a business discussion. They weren’t disrespecting Cutler in any way.
So now Cutler is PO’d, which is on him. As I - and dozens of others locally and nationally - pointed out right after the news of the trade talks first broke, he needs to grow up and act like a professional. Instead, he’s been at home pouting for two weeks. He won’t even come to Denver to meet McDaniels face to face. Cutler couldn’t have handled this worse. You can likely put a lot of it on his agent, Bus Cook (the same bozo who orchestrated the whole Brett Favre fiasco last summer). Cook has obviously filled Cutler with a lot of hot air. Put it this way, if the agent said, “Go to Denver and meet with your coach” Cutler would have been here a week ago. Instead, he’s been petulant and insubordinate.
So now we’ve reached the point where everyone’s has their “macho” up and there doesn’t seem to be any turning back. This time, I have to side with Denver Post columnist Mark Kisla. It doesn’t look like things will ever be what they need to be for Cutler and the new Denver Broncos regime. It’s time to make a trade.
The NFL Draft is coming up in a few weeks. That means it’s “trading season.” Call the Detroit Lions and make a deal to send Cutler and his baggage to Detroit (wow, talk about exile…) for the first pick in the draft and more. If you’re the Lions, and you’re considering drafting Georgia’s Matthew Stafford, why wouldn’t you take Cutler instead? Meanwhile, the Broncos can go out and grab a couple of studs with the top pick - and the 12th pick - to help the beleaguered defense. B.J. Raji from Boston College and Aaron Curry from Wake Forest would fit the bill nicely.
And the Broncos might as well get used to the idea of Chris Simms under center, at least for awhile. Hey, they seemed willing to give the keys to someone named Matt Cassell, right? Simms has a better pedigree than Cassell, and if McDaniels can ‘coach him up’ as they say, he could be just fine. We’ll…okay at least.
The Broncos rebuilding job is just starting under McDaniels. With or without Cutler, they’re no threat to make the play-offs next season. What the new coach needs for success in the long run is players who believe and want to be with him in Denver. Cutler no longer fits that description.
(AP Photo of Chris Simms by Mark Humphrey.)
Comments
A business? If you treat pro sports like a business you get the New York Yankees. If you treat pro sports like a game that has its business side, you get winners. Josh McDog needs to establish his authority by taking a hike. No coach or any owner is primarily responsible for a team winning a "Super Bowl." It's the players. For evidence of this fact see the Dallas Cowboys in the post-Troy and post-Emmitt era. Jerry and Jimmy scrambling to claim the glory was a joke. The players won the games, and the owner and the coach made little real difference at that level.
Boing, you say "you get the New York Yankees" like its a bad thing. The Yankees have more championships than anybody in any sport. They also happen to run one of the cleanest franchises in sports. Did I mention that the Yanks win 1 in 4 World Series?
OK Mark, so McDaniel's you are going to give a pass and it is Cutler's fault? Your reasoning is pretty lame. Cutler didn't start this mess, McIdiot did. He wanted to bring in his one year wonder Cassell to fit into his scheme. He has a proven Pro Bowl quarterback in Cutler but that will not do for him? I fail to see this logic...
You have absolutely lost your mind. Chris Simms is not the answer in any way, shape, or form. In order to justify trading your most important player, you need to be assured you'll get fair market value. Even the #1 pick in this year's draft is not fair value for the best quarterback from the 2006 draft, a Pro Bowler, 4000 yard guy, rocket arm, prototype size, and the one QB this franchise has had this decade you can build a team around. Franchise quarterbacks are a precious commodity, far more rare than head coaches. If I'm Bowlen and faced with a choice between Cutler or McDaniel, the erstwhile young coach would find his luggage at DIA quicker than you can say "Josh is an idiot."
For Mcdaniel and new GM Brian Xanders to dangle the still painfully young Cutler out publicly as trade bait was inexusably stupid, especially given the fact they're paying him $48 million over six years, a relatively cheap pricetag for such a talented QB.
As for the bumper crop in this year's draft...if you trade Cutler then draft defense, you send a message to the team and the fans that the next few seasons are a wash and we have no clue when another quarterback with Cutler's talent will come along. That's way too risky given the state of the franchise. Trade Marshal first, or cut him outright, sign Tory Holt, draft defense, assure Cutler he's the man, and make a serious run in the playoffs.
If you have to fire McDaniels and Xander, so be it.
cutlers a little bitch who hasn't had a winning season. he gets so mad about possibly being mentioned in a trade, then he demands a trade what a baboon he is, as well as bronco fans,
you dirt bags are lucky to have JD as a coach.
for the record i hope cutler stays along with baby TO because teams that cater to pre madonas lose.
see in in the post season, oh wait a minute, doh!!
McD started this crap and tried to bury it. It's clear that Broncos hired an idiot.
Ah, Mr. Thompson, now we see the problem. You're trying to look at this Cutler mess through frozen glasses. This isn't the NHL. They don't hire and fire football coaches on a whim. McDaniels is the Broncos coach for the foreseeable future. We'll all find out together in two or three years if he was the right choice. We all may have our doubts, but right now, he's the coach and if anyone's going to be leaving from DIA anytime soon, it's the guy who just put one of his homes up for sale, not the guy in charge. If you actually READ my column, you'd understand that I don't agree with the idea of Cassell for Cutler, nor did I say that "Chris Simms is the answer." Chris Simms is who Denver has, so he's a stop gap (although you would have taken Simms over Cassell a year ago, right?) Denver has no chance at making a run at the play-offs next year anyway, with Tori Holt or Jerry Rice for that matter, so if it takes another draft or two to find the next 'franchise' QB then so be it. Denver needs to take a season or two to rebuild, and everyone knows that starts with the defense. As the rebuilding begins, the coach and the organization need guys who are 100% committed to the program. Cutler has proven he's not, which is the sad part. Someday he'll grow up after waking up in Detroit and realize how good he had it here. Talking about trading Cutler for Cassell was not a smart move, but it would have been worse if they had actually done it. Therefore, the 'idiot' here is the guy who overreacted to rumors and refuses to act like a professional off the field.
To use a hockey axium...it's about managing your assets.
Who is the greater asset to an NFL organization, a head coach or a franchise quarterback? Um, I'd venture to say the QB, by the very definition of scarcity and rarity, is far more difficult to find, and therefore more valuable to your franchise than a head coach.
Quarterbacks are pampered little babies no doubt, but to essentialy tell your most valuable player, which Cutler is for the Broncos, his services are for sale, you run the risk of damaging the confidence of an admittedly pampered brat.
Cutler may be acting unreasonably, and even I won't deny this easily seen fact, but the genesis of this meltdown is Xander and McDaniel making public the fact they were/are actively shopping Cutler for trade bait. This is inexcusable and the fact you and others are willing to give Xander & McD a pass because Cutler is "whining" leads me to believe you're more concerned about franchise image than quality of play.
Every one of you columnists base your argument on the same incorrect point. Cutler isn't torqued up over the previous trade talks, the problem is that he doesn't trust McDaniels or Bowlen anymore. They probably lied to his face about the trade after he found out.
I think most of us would quit our jobs if we had alternatives if we couldn't stand our boss, didn't trust him farther than you could throw him, and suspected that your boss would move you to a different department w/o your permission at any time. If your working environment sucks with regards to management, leave.
Knudson: Stop saying he's a baby for thinking he's untouchable. That's not what this is about. You either missed the point entirely, or your pulling the same line other incompetent bloggers are pulling.
Mr. T, This is easy: In football, the head coach is FAR more important than ANY single player. You venture to guess WRONG. We all know that Sid the Kid could get his NHL coach fired, but it doesn't work like that in pro football, thankfully. How many HoF QB's have never won a Super Bowl? How many great coaches have won the Super Bowl without a great QB? The fact of the matter that in football, it takes an organization to win a championship, not just one or two star players. Whether or not we all like McDaniels and his decisions to this point doesn't matter. He's the coach, he's staying, and if Cutler doesn't like not being untouchable for an 8-8 team, then he's the one who will be leaving. That's how the sport/business works. Actually, it's a lot better to have the bosses runnning things than letting the inmates run the asylum like they do in the NBA and NHL.
...and John, Cutler being a baby is EXACTLY what this is about. Every column has a topic, and that's the topic here. You and I might be able to leave our job if we don't like or trust our boss, but believe me, Cutler does not have THAT KIND of job. He's one of 32 people on the planet that have his kind of job. Very different set of rules. He can't just up and leave for another team/job if he's 'torqued.' That's the price you pay for getting a zillion dollar signing bonus and having a penthouse in LoDo and a spread in Castle Pines. Don't try to compare anyone else's working situation with a professional athlete. Two different planets. One of the best things about football is that no one player is more important to success than the team, even if "Jay-C" thinks he is. We'll see how great he does with a crappy organizaton in Detroit.
Precisely because he's one of the 32 best QBs in the league he can get away with what we can't. Would Terrell Owens or Latrell Spreewell be able to hold a job in the real world? Of course not. But you are wrong, you can't force somebody to do a job. Jay could refuse to show indefinitely. Return a portion of the signing bonus? Sure, Jay would love to get his contract nullified. He's underpaid. Indentured servitude is illegal in the USA, if he wants to quit he can at any time (with legal repercussions of course).
Your opinion about a head coach always being more important than a player is also wrong. If you have a coach driving an organization in the ground and it costs that organization a current franchise player and scares off future acquisitions, then you fire the coach. If Cutler leaves and is successful elsewhere while the Broncos flounder, McDaniels will get fired and rightfully so. The fans should be furious in that transpires. There was nothing wrong with the offense. Bowlen made a huge mistake not hiring a defensive-minded HC and a second huge mistake in hiring a 32 y/o. JM is not Tomlin. Tomlin was smart enough not to break something that was working. I hope Denver gets what they are asking for, to send Cutler off, because that city deserves it. When the Raiders and the Chiefs pound the Broncos regularly along with the Chargers, I'm going to laugh.
Simms will prove to be better than Cutler. Gruden was in the process of destroying Simms in Tampa, when Simms got hurt. The prior year he brought them to the Playoffs and was 1 dropped pass in the endzone from advancing.
Simms has guts and heart, a powerful arm, and a tendacy for batted passes. That is one they need to work on.
Yup, head coaches are so much more valuable Pat Bowlen when forced to choose between John Elway and Dan Reeves realized his star quarterback came first. Were you not watching those Broncos teams of the 80's. They made three Super Bowls in spite of Dan Reeves.
Or we can drudge up more contemporary examples...if forced to choose between Kurt Warner and Dick Vermeil, who would you choose.
Or current versions...
Drew Brees or Sean Payton
Philip Rivers or Norv Turner
Tom Brady or Bill Belichick
Even the venerable Mike Shanahan only won two playoff games after the retirement of John Elway, and Shanny may end up in the HOF. And realistically, Reeves and Don Shula cost Elway and Dan Marino any shot to wina Super Bowl for the majority of their careers.
The only way you side with a coach over a QB is if said coach has proven himself to be an invaluable resource. Cutler may be young but he has results to back him up, albeit very short term. McD hasn't proven a thing.
Mr. T, we now see where all this has gone. Cutler's asked to be traded for the SECOND TIME (the first was after Jeremy Bates left for SC). Stop kissing his butt and giving him a free pass in all this. There's plenty of blame to go around. Woody has nailed it in today's Post.
Your first mistake is comparing Cutler to Elway, Marino or any other great QB who had issues with his coach. (As far as I know, Brees, Rivers and Brady has never had issues like this. Each has obviously handled any issues that did come up like a professional and it never got like this.) Cutler had the chance to step up, take the mantle and lead his team through a difficult coaching change. "Follow me, guys. This is gonna be fine." Instead he pouted that he wasn't consulted before Shanny was let go, and he asked to be traded when Bates left. That's real leadership.
Certainly McDaniel is totally unproven, but so is Cutler. 17-20 (should be 16-21 if not for the blown call vs SD here...and that would have been another Cutler turnover, not a defensive break down) does not earn you control over the personnel moves of a NFL franchise. If you give that control to any player, you've got the NHL - inmates running the asylum. Each of the QB's you've used as examples have proven themselves and are on a different level from Cutler. We don't know how good a coach McDaniels will be. I would feel better about him if Bowlen had hired Scot Pioli and Pioli had brought in McDaniels. I'm worried about the admin of unproven Brian Xander. McDaniel may be another Shanahan (good) or he may be another R Crennel (not so good). We'll see because he's going to get a chance to prove it. What you can NEVER have in the NFL is the type of revolving door for coaches that the NHL has. That destroys organizations (the Oakland Raiders, anyone?) Name a good NFL organization that changes coaches on a whim? None. Not every hire is a good one, but the mere suggestion that you fire a coach who's been on the job for less than three months without having so much as a mini-camp is just stupid. A player whose never even led his team to the play-offs gets PO's so you fire the new coach? In the NFL? Ridiculous! The Elway - Reeves rift went on for YEARS before Reeves was let go, and they had some pretty good years during that time, because of the stability of the organization. And...if I'm not mistaken, Don Shula's got more rings than Dan Marino.
And just like McDaniels, we don't know how good Cutler will be. He could end up being another Big Ben or the next Jeff George. No one knows for sure right now. What we do know is that Cutler's professionalism and leadership abilities suck right now. Had he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "That's the business of pro football" and moved on after the Cassell trade didn't happen, we wouldn't be in this situation. Cutler screwed this up because HE NEEDS TO GROW UP and be a professional on and off the field. Hope he and his dimwit agent like it in Detroit.
All McDaniels had to do is employ some basic techniques from "How to Win Friends and Influence People" with Jay. As was iterated again today, Cutler was looking for some encouraging words from the coach. Words are cheap, it wouldn't have cost McDaniels anything to say what Cutler needed to hear.
Given that all it would have taken to fix this mess at least 3 separate times (I'm not even saying he needed to fly to Jay but he probably should have) that means the divorce can be squarely blamed on McDaniels and Bowlen.
If by "Grow up and be professional" you mean that he needs to act like nothing happened and treat a young adult only 7 years older than he that he doesn't trust at all, I disagree. McDaniels is continually proven he doesn't deserve the respect of his title. Put it this way: If Mike Tomlin was coming into the Broncos as his first coaching job, do you think Denver would be in this predictament? Not all all, Steelers players state specifically he took the approach of getting player feedback while maintaining his position of authority. All McDaniels had to do was learn from Tomlin and he blew it.
Could Jay suck it up? Yes, sure, but he doesn't have too. Deciding he doesn't want to be a Bronco any more after a severe regime change doesn't make him unprofessional. Josh said "My way or the highway" so he's taking the highway after intending on showing up for the OCP as last as Saturday. Unprofessional is quitting mid-season, not before it starts.
"but the mere suggestion that you fire a coach who's been on the job for less than three months without having so much as a mini-camp is just stupid."
Stupid as opposed to letting a completely unproven coach drive your mmost important player out of town?! You're off your rocker Knudsen, completely daft on this.
I used to quarterbacks mentioned earlier to draw an analogy of choosing between coach & qb, not necissarily to compare Cutler to those great quarterbacks but more to counter your completely nonsensical argument, "In football, the head coach is FAR more important than ANY single player." Sorry, but Reeves wasn't more important than Elway by any stretch of the imagination, nor was Shanahan more important that Elway, or Belichick over Tom Brady, Norv Turner over Philip Rivers, etc.
There’s only one organization in the NFL that would even consider firing a head coach three months – and zero games – into his tenure (sorry, Raider fan.) NO ONE among the 31 sane owners would even for one second consider such a preposterous idea. Anyone who suggests that has absolutely ZERO idea of how professional sports operates. None. The idea that McDaniels should be fired because he hurt Cutler’s feelings IS ridiculous and just plain stupid.
As for the comparisons to Elway v. Reeves, keep in mind these facts: First, Reeves was around a lot longer than three months, and the two of them had a lot of success together despite the ill will. Second, Elway didn’t pout, not show up to mini-camps and act like a freakin’ baby because Dan was mean to him. He showed up, busted his H of F butt and led his team to great heights like the leader of the team is supposed to do. And most importantly, when Reeves was fired it was not because he and Elway were at odds. I’m friends with several former Broncos from that era. Reeves had alienated a lot of key players, not just Elway. His style of coaching had worn thin with a lot of the veterans and it was time for a change, period. That’s normal in pro football. Coaches who are around for a long time end up with more enemies than friends. To try to compare the two situations – a quarterback and coach who’d been to three Super Bowls together vs. a brand new coach and a QB with zero play-off games and a losing record – is a incredible stretch and once again, shows zero understanding of how pro sports works.
How about this from Mortensen today: “As for ignoring phone calls from McDaniels and Bowlen, Cutler said: "Josh and I have exchanged text messages. We had a conference call. And if Pat wanted to speak to me, why didn't he come to the meeting on Saturday?"
The insubordinate little baby is now calling out the Owner? Are you kidding me? Who the hell does he think he is? This whole “Cutler can do no wrong” jock-sniffing mentality that some of you are putting out there is scary. “If the boss wants to talk to me, why doesn’t he come down here and tell me?” Umm…BECAUSE HE’S THE BOSS you spoiled little punk! If the owner/boss calls you and you don’t call him back because you just don’t want to, your insubordinate butt should be shipped off to Detroit yesterday.
How about this Elway comparison: How many times do you think Bowlen called Elway and John ignored the call?
Time to pull your nose out of Cutler’s be-hind and see this for what it is, the case of a spoiled punk with a me-first attitude who needs to grow the hell up.
More fodder for you Jay-C jock sniffers. Like it or not, people like Mark Kizla, WHO DO THIS FOR A LIVING are smarter than you, and so am I because I live in the world of professional sports.
Kizla today: “Does a franchise that has spent a decade stumbling and bumbling its way to mediocrity really think Cutler is the only way back to elite status in the NFL?
Meaning no disrespect to his bad haircut or worse attitude, but it should be far from impossible to find a passer who has won as many NFL playoff games as the zero Cutler has with the Broncos.
The Broncos are in immediate need of a quarterback who wants to be here, because this job is way too tough and political for an oversensitive soul (see: Griese, Brian) or a rogue who doesn't need the hassle (see: Plummer, Jake). This relationship has stopped making sense.”
So have your lame arguments.
You're such a grizzled old tool Knudson. Just old and dumber than ditch water if you think a head coach who's been in town about as long as Obama has been prez is a more valuable piece to the Broncos' puzzle than a Pro Bowl quarterback. Now stop slobbering all over McDaniels, put your man crush on him aside, and write something sensible with a coherent line of logic. But I may be exxpecting too much...after all, what does a washed up baseball player know about football anyway.
Mr. T, You may want to actually READ things before you comment on them. Exactly when/where did I 'slobber' all over McDaniels? The notion that I'm some how enamored with the new coach is stupid - like the rest of your comments. What I actually SAID was: "We don't know how good a coach McDaniels will be. I would feel better about him if Bowlen had hired Scot Pioli and Pioli had brought in McDaniels. I'm worried about the admin of unproven Brian Xander. McDaniel may be another Shanahan (good) or he may be another R Crennel (not so good). We'll see because he's going to get a chance to prove it." That qualifies as what you term "a man crush?" No, that's actually analysis. You don't have a clue.
As for credentials, I'd love to compare resumes. AFTER I was done in as a player in PROFESSIONAL sports, I have been in the sports media for 15 years. I know enough about football to be selected one of our state's Heisman Trophy voters. What credentials do you have other than being a puck head and a jock sniffer?
I started reading Kizla recently as a result of this controversy. I can't say that I'm impressed with what I read, especially if he's resorting to making fun of Jay's haircut -- real professionalism there.
Obviously the fallout of this is going to take at least one year, probably 3 years to gauge. Everything is just hunches and speculation right now. However, McDaniels is a bit thick. How many times does he have to meet with Cutler with his tough-guy persona with the exact same results (e.g. Broncos think the meeting goes swell, Cutler put off) without learning or changing his tact. He's no genius, and actually a bit slow on the uptake. Make no mistake, if the Broncos are forced to trade Cutler, McDaniels has to take a major portion of the blame -- more than Cutler, who is 7 years his junior.
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