DOLPHINS REACH OUT TO CUTLER
Former Broncos and Bears quarterback had best NFL season with Gase as coordinator.
DAVIE — Jay Cutler would like to play quarterback in 2017 and he’d really like to play for coach Adam Gase again, a source said Friday.
It will be up to the Dolphins if the reunion occurs, the source indicated.
The Dolphins are trying to make a final medical determination on Ryan Tannehill, who reinjured his left knee
Team captain Thomas does best to lift spirits at practice, in practice Thursday. And if Tannehill has season-ending surgery, Cutler appears a viable option.
The Dolphins could consider promoting backup Matt Moore to starter. But Miami will need to add a quarterback — either a starter or backup — even if Tannehill opts again for rest and rehabilitation.
Cutler and Gase had success together in Chicago, when the quarterback posted a career-high in passer rating in 2015, one year before Tannehill did the same with Miami.
In May, Gase said he was not surprised Cutler would go into television work. Cutler has been preparing for
of retirement to play in Miami.
This is a new development and one I’m not wild about, but coaches generally prefer to go with what they know in a crisis. Cutler and Gase previously worked together in Chicago. Gase has never worked with Kaepernick.
Still hoping, however, that Gase will consider strongly what he knows about Matt Moore. He’s the one who filled in during Tannehill’s first injury stretch late last season, putting up numbers that compared favorably to anything Cutler or Kaepernick did in 2016.
Moore had a better completion percentage (63.2) than Cutler (59.1) or Kaepernick (59.2).
He had nine touchdown passes in four starts, including the playoff game, compared to Cutler’s four touchdowns in five.
Also, Moore had a quarterback rating of 105.6 compared with 90.7 for Kaepernick and 78.1 for Cutler, who was too banged up in his 11th NFL season to play very much at all.
To me, simply plugging a big-name veteran quarterback into the Dolphins system is a larger gamble than rolling on with Moore and a group of receivers that worked well with him last year.
Teaming with Moore, DeVante Parker had a 56-yard touchdown catch in a close win at Buffalo. Kenny Stills had one touchdown catch in each of the season’s final three games, including a 52-yarder. Jarvis Landry scored half of his season total of four touchdowns in combination with Moore, too, and one of those went for 66 yards.
The whole conversation is exasperating, of course, for Miami fans who were preparing mentally for a really fun ride in 2017.
The season doesn’t have to be over, though, if Gase stays with what he’s got or simply decides to bring in a low-profile veteran to compete with Brandon Doughty for clipboard-holding duties.
Look at what Bill Belichick did in 2008 when Tom Brady blew out a knee in the season’s opening game. He pivoted to Matt Cassel, a quarterback the Patriots had been training as a backup for three seasons, and New England went out and won 11 games anyway. Oh, Miami won the division all right, but it took a tiebreaker to settle it.
If Belichick had trouble with Brady again, he’s got Jimmy Garoppolo ready to go. Matter of fact, Belichick dug all the way past Garoppolo and down to Jacoby Brissett during Brady’s four-game suspension last year, knowing his starter would be back soon. Didn’t stop the Patriots from winning another Super Bowl.
Look, too, at Minnesota. The Vikings turned to Sam Bradford last year when Teddy Bridgewater was knocked out for the season with a non-contact knee injury at training camp. Gave up a firstround draft pick and more, as a matter of fact, to get the former No. 1 overall draft pick, because there was no reliable Plan B. The Vikings went from 11-5 with Bridgewater to 8-8 with Bradford and the situation is no more stable today.
Gase will do what he thinks best with the information he’s got. That’s the biggest part of his job.
If someone from the outside winds up leading this team, however, it should be the result of a competition, at least. Moore measures up to these guys, and he’s been in Gase’s system as long as Cutler has. One year each.