But it might be Green Apple for QB
Jay Cutler has emerged as the Jets best free agent quarterback option 11 years after they passed on him with the fourth pick in the first round to take D’Brickashaw Ferguson. Oh, boy. That’s not good news. Cutler − whom the Jets are interested in, sources told the Daily News − is a very poor man’s Brett Favre. He can sling it like Favre, fall in love with his arm like Favre, make awful decisions like Favre. He’s just not a winner and leader like Favre or beloved in the locker room like the Hall of Fame former quarterback of the Jets.
It seems anybody who plays with Cutler long enough doesn’t care all that much for him. Even so, he’s on the scrap heap and the Jets are searching for scraps. This could be a one-year marriage of convenience to provide GM Mike Maccagnan, terribly overmatched finding quarterbacks in the draft, a chance to make it look like he’s trying to win in 2017 when it’s in the best interest of the franchise to tank the season and get Southern Cal’s Sam Darnold in 2018 in what is expected to be a strong quarterback draft.
Jets Nation will become enamored with Cutler the first time he fires a 40-yard bullet over the middle but the love affair will immediately end when the pass is picked off. That’s who he is. It’s an un-Bear-able situation for Da Jets.
Cutler got off to a rough start with the Bears by throwing four interceptions against the hated Packers in the opening game of his first season in Chicago in 2009. He had a career-high 26 picks for the season.
Really, he sounds like the perfect Jets quarterback. He will fit right in, a smooth transition from Fitz.
All the Bears higher-ups had nice things to say about Cutler after they cut him Thursday. He showed class, too, mentioning he met his wife in Chicago and that’s where his three children were born. “Our family will leave Chicago with great memories and relationships on and off the field,” he said. “We look forward to the next chapter in our lives and wish the best to Bear fans everywhere.”
Cutler won’t be as good as Ryan Fitzpatrick was in 2015 but he would have to throw it lefthanded to be as bad as Fitz was last season. Cutler is 68-71 in the regular season and in his eight seasons in Chicago after getting traded from Denver, he made the playoffs just once after not making it to the postseason with the Broncos. For his career, he has 208 TDs and 146 INTs.
This is what happens when Mark Sanchez regresses, Geno Smith turns into a knucklehead, Bryce Petty is just a guy and rookie Christian Hackenberg can’t even get on the field in one of the worst quarterback seasons in Jets history.
Cutler, who will be 34 in April, is the best of what’s left in free agency and there wasn’t much to start. I would certainly rather have him on a short-term contract than Colin Kaepernick, Sanchez, Smith, Brock Osweiler, Brian Hoyer or Mike Glennon. There were reports the Jets were talking to the Broncos about Trevor Siemian, who will likely be available if Denver gets Tony Romo. Siemian was taken in the seventh round of the same draft Maccagnan selected Petty in the fourth round.
Romo is the most talented quarterback who will change teams, but realistically, he would likely rather retire than play for this Jets mess. He’s made over $100 million in his career and the goal now is to hook up with the Texans or Broncos defense and win a Super Bowl.
It appears the Texans are the favorites to get Romo after Houston was so desperate to dump Osweiler and get out from under his $16 million guaranteed salary for 2017 and save $10 million on the salary cap, that they traded a second-round pick to the Browns to take him.
Hoyer signed with the 49ers. Glennon, the Bucs backup, is this year’s Osweiler (three years, $45 million with $19 million guaranteed) getting drastically overpaid by Chicago to replace Cutler. He has a 5-13 record as a starter.
Franchise QBs don’t make it to free agency. That’s why you need to find them in the draft. But among the free agents, I would rank Romo first and Cutler second. You can keep the rest of them.
Osweiler was the big name last year when the Texans signed him to a four-year, $72 million contract that included $37 million guaranteed. He quickly became the worst bust since free agency became a thing in the NFL in 1993. The Texans presumably dumped Osweiler in anticipation of either signing Romo if the Cowboys cut him or trading for him if they become convinced Dallas could send him to Denver.
What was Cleveland thinking? In effect, the Browns paid $16 million for a 2018 second round pick. They are soon expected to cut Osweiler if they can’t trade him. Even if they can trade him, they can’t expect to get back much more than a seventh-round pick, but will probably have to pick up about $14 million off the contract.
The Browns had about $100 million in cap room. The cap has gone up so much in recent years that some teams are having a hard time spending the 90% minimum over a three-year period. The Browns are the leading proponents of analytics in the NFL – one of their chief decision makers is Paul DePodesta, one of the money ball baseball guys – and are all about collecting draft picks. Of course, they’ve shown no indication they can make good decisions with their picks.
In the next two drafts, the Browns have three No. 1 picks and five No. 2 picks. They still don’t have a quarterback after trading away the chance to take Carson Wentz last year.
Maccagnan has picked Petty and Hackenberg in his first two drafts for the Jets. Now his best option is Jay Cutler. There is nobody else.