Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dave Hyde on Dolphin dreams
New Dolphin says wife pushed him to return
Team wants one good year from Jay Cutler, right.
DAVIE — Jay Cutler, the Miami Dolphins’ newly-acquired quarterback, said Monday he thought a long time before degames ciding to come out of retirement and again play for Miami coach Adam Gase, reuniting a duo that previously worked together in Chicago in 2015.
“A situation like this doesn’t come along very often,” said Cutler, the 34-year-old, 11-year veteran who retired in May.
“I know Adam very well. I’ve known him since ’06, the first year I came out. I know the system. You’re talking about a playoff team with a lot of really, good football players, a lot of potential. There weren’t a lot of opportunities or jobs out there, if they would have came up I would have taken, but this has got to be at the top of the list.”
Gase basically admitted Cutler would be the starting quarterback Monday when he remarked, “He didn’t come out of retirement to stand on the sideline.”
Cutler, who missed five due to a thumb injury last season with Chicago, said his surgically-repaired right shoulder (he had a labrum inreally
jury repaired in December) won’t be an issue.
“It’s good,” he said. “By March, I was cleared on that one.”
Cutler, who was scheduled to start a new job as NFL analyst for FOX later this month, admitted he probably isn’t in the best shape physically. He said he’s thrown a few passes at Vanderbilt, his alma mater, and played some basketball in the past few months.
“The good thing is I play quarterback, so I don’t really have to be in that great of a cardiovascular shape,” he quipped before turning serious again.
“But I’ll be fine. Adam knows kind of what I’ve been up to, so we’ll figure it out along the way.”
Cutler, who has a wife (reality TV star Kristin Cavallari), two sons and a daughter, said he was enjoying retired life. He said the decision to return to football “was hard. It was definitely hard.”
“The last four months I’ve been in a different mode, different mind-set getting ready for the FOX deal,” he said. “I was really pretty good with where I was in my life. I was around the kids a lot and felt pretty content. Weighed back and forth on this.
“I’d probably say my wife Kristin probably talked me into it more than anybody else could.”
Cutler, who had 21 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a career-best 92.3 passer rating in 2015 when Gase was his offensive coordinator, reportedly got a oneyear, $10 million contract from the Dolphins with incentives.
Asked whether he considers resuming his career a one-year thing or something more, Cutler deflected.
“I’m going in as a one-day [thing],” he said. “I’ve got a lot of things I’ve got to process and gets used to. I was in one place for eight years so this is going to be a little bit different, it’s going to be a transition periods.
“I just want to get to this next meeting, figure out where the dinner room is and then we’ll start learning the offense, learning some guys’ names.”
Cutler has gained a reputation throughout his career for being a bad teammate. Right guard Jermon Bushrod, Cutler’s teammate for three years in Chicago (2013-15), said that’s not the case.
“I think he’s a great teammate, I think he’s a great guy,” Bushrod said. “I have spent three years in Chicago. We were pretty close there, he was a family man, I have a family. It was just a good vibe. He’s a good locker room, guy.”
Backup quarterback David Fales, a Cutler teammate in Chicago (2014-16), also vouched for the newest Dolphin.
“As a quarterback he’s talented, skilled, instinctual, very smart,” Fales said. “He’s been in this league this long for a reason because he’s one of the best.
“As a guy, as a teammate, he’s an awesome guy, good friend, always there for you and just a good dude. He’s really smart. He’s a good teammate. He’s there for his guys.”
Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore, who is being muscled out of a possible starting job, said he has no hard feelings about the situation. Moore said he had a conversation with Gase about what would happen.
“It was very simple, very straightforward, and I get it, I understand,” Moore said of the talk. “But it wasn’t very Hollywood. It was just pretty straightforward.”
All of this quarterback drama began, of course, with starter Ryan Tannehill re-injuring his left knee on Thursday.
Gase said he’s still not sure whether Tannehill would have surgery, a procedure that would almost certainly rule him out for the entire 2017 season.
“I’ll let you guys know when I hear officially,” Gase said of Tannehill possibly having surgery.
Cutler seemed sympathetic to Tannehill. After all, since 2009, Cutler has missed five or more games in a season due to injury three times, and he’s left numerous other games due to injury.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I’ve been injured before. I know what that feeling is like at quarterback to be hurt and not be able to help your team and kind of feel isolated a little bit like an outcast.
“It’s hard and I wish Ryan the best through whatever decision he has to make. I’m sure he’s going to come back stronger.”