Is there a QB controversy?
According to the Denver Post’s Mark Kizla, there is no quarterback controversy, because Jay Cutler has already won. Kizla then does what any columnist would do in a situation like this - he goes straight into prediction mode, and makes the following statements without reservation:
1. Jay Cutler will win the Broncos their next Super Bowl.
2. Jay Cutler will boost Mike Shanahan into the Hall of Fame.
3. Jay Cutler will be starting next season.
4. Jay Cutler will be the next Ben Roethlisberger.
To make it even more interesting, Kizla said all of this before Cutler even took a snap against the Lions. Now I’m not going to rain on anyone’s parade here - especially since I am myself still feeling a high after Cutler’s very good performance against the Lions. Jay Cutler is undoubtedly the future of this organization - but anyone who believes that Jay Cutler is ready to lead an NFL team is a chump.
Why? Because Cutler hasn’t won in a long time. Choosing a second-tier football school like Vanderbilt was almost certainly what landed Cutler in our lap, but it’s also the main reason why he won’t be playing this year, and maybe not even the first part of next year. Last year, the VU Commodores were 5-6 in the SEC, despite Cutler’s outstanding 3,000+ yard totals. Cutler is coming from a no-pressure environment where winning anything was an afterthought, and being dropped into one of the toughest markets in football to be a quarterback. And after an AFC Championship year, it’s Super Bowl or bust for this team and its fans. Think Cutler can handle that?
There’s no doubt that Cutler has the talent to take any team to a new level - but does he have the grit yet? Remember Brian Griese, who was asked to follow John Elway and a Super Bowl win? Remember how that turned out? And people said Griese had a great football mind…
My point is, if a Super Bowl is what you want, you won’t rush Cutler into the starting role. He’s got to spend a year or two remembering what it feels like to have something real to play for again. And with the Broncos looking like one of the AFC’s strongest teams, you can bet he’ll have a pretty good opportunity to do that even from the sidelines.
Meanwhile, I don’t feel it’s time to give up on Plummer. Jake brought us very close to a Super Bowl last year, and if he gets us even closer this year, it’ll be very hard to convince me that it’s time to let him go. Plummer’s youth may be behind him, but I believe that his best years are ahead of him, and that he’ll get better for each year he stays in the Broncos’ system. As long as Jake continues to lead this team deep into the post season, I won’t be ready to let him go no matter who’s set to fill his place.
5 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks entered automatically, e-mail kept private. HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
1. Tom - August 12, 2006 @ 9:43 pm
Hey, before you get down on Cutler too much, 5-6 is a huge accomplishment at Vanderbilt. The TD drive he led in the last minute at Tennessee last season was Elwayesque (is that a word?) A hostile environment of 100,000 screaming fans, and a top-quality college defense, and Cutler took the Commodores down the field for the winning score. The fact that Vandy was 5-6 last season had more to do with the rest of the Commodore team than with Cutler himself.
2. Gabe Stein - August 13, 2006 @ 12:55 am
I acknowledge that, and I realize that he wasn’t at a top-tier school. But like I said, it’s more that he’s forgotten what a winning system is like than inability to win, or lack of skill.
3. Tom - August 14, 2006 @ 12:25 am
Top-tier football school, no… top-tier academic school, yes.
4. Gabe Stein - August 14, 2006 @ 12:26 am
Yes, Vandy is a very good academic school, indeed. I’ve looked at it myself as a possibility.
5. Rich Uncle Skeleton - August 21, 2006 @ 3:32 pm
Kizla is a drunk.