Broncos’ quarterback Jay Cutler says that he can’t trust new head coach Josh McDaniels and thus wants the team to trade him.
Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler said Sunday night that he will not report to the team’s first meeting on Monday and has formally asked to be traded. He confirmed that a Saturday meeting with first-year coach Josh McDaniels ended badly from his perspective while McDaniels offered another viewpoint on Sunday night.
“I went in there with every intention of solving the issue, being a Bronco, moving forward as a Bronco,” Cutler said. “We weren’t in there but about 20 minutes, [McDaniels] did most of the talking and as far as I’m concerned, he made it clear he wants his own guy. He admitted he wanted Matt Cassel because he said he has raised him up from the ground as a quarterback. He said he wasn’t sorry about it. He made it clear that he could still entertain trading me because, as he put it, he’ll do whatever he feels is in the best interest of the organization.
“At the end of the meeting, he wasn’t like, ‘Jay, I want you as our quarterback, you’re our guy.’ It felt like the opposite. He basically said that I needed to tell him if we can’t work this out, to let him know,” Cutler added. “I thought he was antagonizing me and that was disappointing because I was ready to move on, committed as a Bronco. Really, I figured we’d hash things out, shake hands, laugh a little and move forward. What happened [Saturday] was the last thing I expected. If I didn’t think it could be fixed, I never would have come back to Denver. It was painfully obvious to me and Bus [Cook, his agent] it’s not something they want to fix.”
It’s hard to get a good read on what the main issue is here. We know Cutler is upset, but does he have a right to be or is he just blowing things out of proportion? Could he stand to be a little more professional and stop acting like a baby or is McDaniels really sending him vibes that he doesn’t want him to be the Broncos’ QB next season?
Here’s my best guess at how we got to this point: Very soon after McDaniels was hired, he realized that Cutler wasn’t going to be his main guy. He wanted Matt Cassel, thought the team could acquire him and offered to trade Cutler as part of a deal to acquire him. But Cassel was dealt to KC and soon after that, the cat comes out of the bag that the Broncos had Cutler on the trade block. Instead of acting like a professional, Cutler threw a fit. Knowing that he had no better options at quarterback, McDaniels stated that the Broncos had no intentions on trading Cutler and that the two parties would have a meet and greet. But Cutler continued to carry on the public tantrum leading up to the meeting and McDaniels (who mind you never wanted Cutler in the first place) essentially makes a half-assed attempt to reconcile things with Cutler. And now Cutler wants to be traded.
Another major possibility is that Cutler is just so much of a prima dona that as soon as he heard that the Broncos were trying to trade him, he flipped out and immediately wanted out of Denver. The coach that drafted him (Mike Shanahan) was fired over the offseason and instead of starting fresh with McDaniels, he saw an opportunity to get out too and now is carrying on this act for the public.
