So I have been thinking about this whole Jay Cutler thing.
There has been a lot made about Cutler's so so performance against the Ravens. Here is my take. It's preseason! I remember that Ryan Tannehill came out a few years ago with a Joe Philbin coached team and went like 5/6 and had a TD pass in his first preseason drive and everyone thought he was going to be the 2nd coming of Tom Brady. How did that work out that year? These games are meaningless and offenses and defenses run a vanilla scheme. Nothing to see here except to evaluate players on the roster bubble and to help vets shake of the rust. Who cares how they perform?
But since a lot of people want to talk about performance, let's break down Jay's night a little bit. He made crisp throws and seemed in command of the offense, honestly more that Tannehill ever has. Did anyone notice how much no huddle was ran with Cutler under center? It was a lot. The offense played faster with Cutler. His best pass of the night was called back because of a holding penalty. Speaking of the offensive line, it was a patch work line. The line playing versus Baltimore will not be the line playing in the season opener, most of them will be backups. So let's just all calm down! Jay played pretty damn good with what he had in my opinion.
That all brings me to me next thought.
One national columnist made a very bold prediction. He said Jay Cutler is primed to have the best season of his career under Gase and Miami could make a run at the AFC crown. Now let's scale that back a little bit. I firmly believe Miami will be in contention for a wild card spot and should get in. If that is done, which I believe it will, what happens next? What if the offense is as dynamic as we will hope it is? What if Cutler does indeed have the best year of his career? What to do?
Listen, this was supposed to be Tannehill's breakout year. Sound familiar? This was supposed to be the year the offense took off under Tannehill and I believed it would have at least improved. But what if Cutler performs as expected? What to do with Tannehill? This is what I would do:
Extend Cutler 3 years. Redo Tannehill's contract and lower it. I don't think Tanne would have a choice because none of his salary is guaranteed after this year, he can be cut without any cap hit. Have an open competition for the QB position which Cutler will probably win. Draft a QB in the early rounds of next year's draft and develop him to be the new franchise QB. Someone like Patrick Mahomes who KC drafted to sit behind Alex Smith.
Why do this? Are you willing to hinge your hopes on Tannehill as your franchise QB considering he is going to be 30 by the time he gets back on the field. Hasn't proved anything yet. Remember, "this was supposed to be the year!" He is coming off 2 ACL injuries. Don't get me wrong, I think Tannehill is a good player, but I also don't think it's smart to hinge your hopes on him being your franchise QB considering all the things I mentioned above. If Tanne don't want to reconstruct his contract and he don't want to compete for the QB position with a Cutler, you cut him and gain 20+ million in cap space.
Miami is built that the QB does not have to do everything. He does not have to be superman like Peyton Manning had to be in Indianapolis. This team can win if the QB takes care of the football. Cutler fits that mold, even if it's temporary while a new QB is being developed.
Thoughts?
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16 comments
Good point. However, at this point we haven't a clue what's going to happen this year. We could come out smoking or as last year out of sync and less than competitive. We have the shell of a very good team but still have no consistency at the QB position YET. Nor the oL, or DBs, or LBs. Jeesh again we are going into the season with nothing but hopium in our veins. Phins Up!!
Good point. Let Ryan go to another team and kick the Phins ass for the next 8 years. He deserves it.
For starters, Tannehill would have a choice. Tannehill, believe it or not is viewed as a top 15 QB w/ huge upside. San Francisco, Denver, Arizona, (perhaps SD w/ Rivers aging, ditto re: Pittsburgh w/ Roethlisberger probably playing his last year), Minnesota and Jacksonville are teams that would sign him in a heart beat. Also, GMs and coaches know that he was the victim of bad coaching his first 4 years--Philbin never allowed him to audible; hence all the sacks. Furthermore, Bill Lazor and Philbin's offense was very predictable. That's obviously not conducive to helping the QB in particular and offense in general.
So Gase arrives in Miami last year and Tannehill has a career year. Notwithstanding, the fact Tannehill struggled early on as he was adjusting to the new offense. Anyway, I feel it is way too early to suggest Cutler be brought back. We have no idea how the season goes--and frankly, it wouldn't shocked me the least if Cutler sustains a serious injury b/c the offensive line is not good. However, the hurry up offense will hide the deficiencies in the line insofar as the opposing defensive line and linebackers will be tired.
I to sadly feel that if Cutler performs well, Miami may sign him for another one or two years and Tannehill may be having to look for another job. Kind of sucks that he got hurt because he really was taking control of the team. Sure his passer rating was 93.5, but if you take the first few games while learning the new offense out of the equation it is substantially higher, and his deep ball is now one of the better ones in the league, especially hen he is on the move, incredible throws. We saw 4th quarter comebacks, more efficiency in the red zone, and actually whipping Arizona's butt until he got hurt. As professional sports are a cutthroat business, if it does so happen that the Fins move on from Ryan, I would like to thank him wholeheartedly for his tireless effort and toughness that he portrayed for our team, and for making his hearing very selective to filter out all the crap that the countless couch potatoes have given him over the years. Very professional Mr. Tannehill, I hope you are back with us, but if not, I hope your new fan base is not as jaundiced as what you have had to put up with
Thank you all for reading my article.
@ Joe: I agree, nobody knows what will happen, this was meant to be a hypothetical article.
@ Charles: Oswelier was the sexy free agent QB picked up by the Texans. Matt Flynn was the sexy free agent QB Picked up by Seattle a few years ago. Mike Glennin was the sexy free agent QB picked up by Chicago last offseason and now is in a QB controversy with a rookie QB. the first 2 went in to kick no asses, especially their former teams. If a QB starving team wants to take that risk and over pay Tannehill, then I say good luck with that strategy.
@ Jacob: I totally agree. Tannehill would be signed by another team in a heartbeat. But at what cost? As I said in my article. 30 years old. Has proven nothing in this league yet. 2 major ACL injuries. Would another team pay him more than Miami would be willing to in a restructured contract? If so, I say goodbye and thank you Ryan.
@ Tony: I agree. Tannehill was on the brink of a breakout. Whether or not that would have happened this year will never be known. But Ryan Tannehill needs to see what cards he has been dealt and go with it. He cannot and should not make the salary in his current contract next year considering the circumstances. He must be restructured or cut. I would hope he stay in a newly negotiated contract. If a desperate team is willing to pay him 20+ million then they are suckers in my opinion.
Let me be clear. I hope he stays, but only with a lower contract number. This injury unfortunately lowered his worth.
Phins Up!
Didn't Cutler have 54 yards brought back due to 2 holding penalties? Add that unto his stats. Ij thought other than horribly missing the screen pass he threw the ball pretty well. He does have a cannon.
Nextf is so fard away to worry about. What if Cutler is only helping Gase out for one year and doesn't want to play come next year? What if Cutler decides to try free agency?
A lot can happen between now and next year.
The worst thing in the world that Miami can do is sign tannehill for any length time. They should cut the cord on tannehill and let him try his hand with some other team. Tannehill has costed us 5 years of no post season. Why would anyone want him back in Miami at all. He was never a good or winning QB for 5 seasons.
Tannehill held back our offense for 5 seasons. You got a glempes of what I mean when Matt Moore finally got under center. Look how many points Matt put up compared to tannehill. This is why we were able to do what tannehill was never able to do; that is beat Buffalo in Buffalo when everything was on the line and make the postseason. So if Jay Cutler takes care of the ball and goes deep regularly like Matt Moore does; we will be blowing teams out in the first half of many games and we will also sweep the cheaters!
Also; all of you misfits who say that tannehill is going to join another team and make us pay; well, the same misfits said the same thing about another tannehill clone named Chad Henne; who by the way, is better than tannehill; and Henne continued to do on other teams, just as he did in Miami; LOOSE GAMES!
Cutler is 35. Let's all stop it. He's not better than Tannehill. I loved when Cutler would play against Miami. I knew there would be some crucial interceptions. LI remember the debate when everyone thought Mitchell was better than Marino.
Len the jury is still out on Jay Cutler. We all know that he can zip the football. What I want to know is, can he will games. Can he blow teams out and win close games in the clutch. Matt Moore has already shown that he can do all of this. So we will learn a lot this coming Thursday against Philly. We will know if Moore or Cutler should be the backup QB! We don't want sporadic plays on offense coupled with key losses, as tannehill teased gave us with for 5 years. WE WANT WINS AND POSTSEASON PLAY!
The only teasing Tannehill did last year was he won 9 of 10 and then got hurt. The years before that were a subpar coach that didn't realize what he had.
Len, if a QB is good at what he does; it will not matter who the coach is at the time. Do you think that Philbin could have prevented Dan Marino or even Bob Griese from shinning at QB? If you say yes; then there is no need in us going any further.
Only with below average QBs and subpar QBs does the coach play a huge part in their greatness beaming forth. Because basically; the subpar QB is depending on the coach to arrange a system that will hide their weaknesses and make the subpar QB appear to be what they are not. Remember; the real cream always rises to the top; no matter who is doing the mixing!!!!!!!!!!!
LC: Good thread. I've been wondering the same thing. I love TH17 and was hoping he picked up where he left off last season, until I saw him limping around on that huge brace. I knew he wouldn't last even four games. So here we are with Cutler at QB. If he does well, your scenario will very likely play out. He likes Gase, the Dolphins, South Beach, and already has a good fan base and a fat check. If he gets us a win in the playoffs, he ain't going anywhere and TH17 is as done as his knee.
David Apollos: You made some good points and ended it by saying Henne continued to LOOSE GAMES! You really need to look at a dictionary and figure out the difference between lose (fail to win) and "loose" (not fitting tightly).
We all make mistakes Steve-o; when we respond too soon. Or when we don't accept the fact that we made a huge mistake at QB and try to hide it for 6 years.