For the past couple weeks, the NFL and those who follow it have been slightly transfixed with Jay Cutler and the Denver Broncos. For the past decade, the only offseason news coming out of Denver has been whether or not Mike Shanahan was going to get that eyebrow tick taken care of. But this year, things in Denver took a turn toward the middle school lunch table with the verbal slap right taking place between Cutler and new head coach Josh McDaniels. The Broncos apparently tried to trade Cutler for Matt Cassell, which pissed off Cutler, who refused to talk to the Broncos, who didn't apologize, which seemed to be headed for a sloppy fight after school on the playground. By the time it was over, Cutler got traded to the Bears for Kyle Orton and two first round draft picks. Being a huge Broncos fan, I'm still undecided on this one.
Why the Bears win: They get Cutler -- their first proven commodity at quarterback since Jim McMahon and the Bears Shuffling Crew. If you're a Bears fan, and I know a few of them, you'd take Cutler with low blood sugar (he's diabetic) against this list of QBs who have started at Soldier Field since 1985: 1985: McMahon, Steve Fuller 1986: McMahon, Mike Tomczak, Steve Fuller, Doug Flutie 1987: McMahon, Tomczak 1988: McMahon, Tomczak, Jim Harbaugh 1989: Tomczak, Harbaugh 1990: Harbaugh, Tomczak 1991: Harbaugh 1992: Harbaugh, Peter Tom Willis, Will Furrer 1993: Harbaugh, Willis 1994: Erik Kramer, Steve Walsh 1995: Kramer 1996: Kramer, Dave Kreig 1997: Kramer, Rick Mirer 1998: Kramer, Steve Stenstrom, Moses Moreno 1999: Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, Jim Miller 2000: McNown, Matthews, Miller 2001: Miller, Matthews 2002: Miller, Chris Chandler, Henry Burris 2003: Kordell Stewart, Chandler, Rex Grossman 2004: Grossman, Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson 2005: Kyle Orton, Grossman 2006: Grossman 2007: Grossman, Brian Griese, Orton 2008: Orton, Grossman (1 game vs. Tennessee).
On the other hand, Cutler doesn't mask the lack of an offensive line or wide receivers.
Why Denver wins: They get rid of a serious prima donna in Cutler and two first round picks that are like gold in the NFL. The Broncos could presumably draft somebody like Mark Sanchez or another top flight QB this year, and still get their mid-teens pick to fulfill needs on defense and at running back. The problem: Denver has TONS of holes. The defense is awful and even if they do draft a QB this season, they likely have a long year ahead of them with Kyle Orton, Chris Simms or a wide-eyed rookie quarterbacking a team with a defense that can't stop anybody. There's nothing that relaxes a quarterback quite like telling him that he needs to go out and score 40 because his defense can't stop anybody.
Heading into this season, I just hope Denver finishes ahead of the Raiders in the NFL West. Yeesh.
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2 comments:
Denver finishing ahead of the Raiders is really all I hope for every season.
OH, and the Raider's billboard in Emeryville indicating that MLK Jr. was a Raiders fan made me mad every time I saw it.
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