Mar
17
Written by:
LarryMac
3/17/2009 12:28 PM
Jay Cutler wants out of Denver because he can't trust new head coach Josh McDaniels and "those in the know" say Cleveland probably has the best shot if he can, in fact, force a trade since the Browns would be able to package a quarterback in either Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn to send back to Denver.
Please, say it ain't so.
Yes, Cutler is a talented young quarterback with tremendous upside. But the comparisons to "a young Brett Favre" are appropriate. On the one hand, like Favre, he has a rifle for an arm and can fire the ball down the field with the best of them. On the other hand, like Favre, he's just as likely to do so without any clear idea of where the ball is going or who will catch it. In three years (two as a starter), he has failed to learn how to read a defense. More importantly, he's shown both on and off the field that he cracks under pressure.
While his numbers last season were impressive, let's take a closer look at them. His best game, far and away, was the season opener against a horrible Oakland team (16-24, 300 yards, 2 TDs). Yes, he surpassed the 100 mark in QB rating five different times but only one of those games (Atlanta) was against a team that ended the season with a winning record. In his five games against teams with winning records at the end of the year, he threw more interceptions (8) than touchdowns (7). More importantly, battling down the stretch for a playoff spot when it mattered most, Cutler turned in three of his worst performances of the season against Carolina, Buffalo (6-8 at the time) and the clincher, San Diego (7-8 at the time). He couldn't lead his team to a division title in the AFC West - which didn't have a single team over .500 at the end. What would make anybody think he'd fare better locking horns with the Ravens and Steelers twice a year?
Cleveland got rid of Kellen Winslow, in part, because of the off-the-field antics. The Browns still have Braylon Edwards to deal with, the Derek Anderson/Brady Quinn saga (which presumably would become the Jay Cutler/Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn saga) and a new all of the usual tumult that goes along with new leadership. We're already suffering through a defensive lineman in Shaun Rodgers who wants to be traded because the new coach didn't say "hello" to him and might want him to (gasp) lose weight. Do we really need a quarterback who wants out because his coach actually thought that maybe there was somebody out there better than him? Do we need somebody that claims to understand that this is a business, but skips (non-mandatory) team meetings and wants to be traded because the team would still listen to serious offers from other teams if they felt it would help them improve? Not unless we want to return to the three ring circus that was the Cleveland Browns 2008 season, we don't!
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