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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