Well That's Over - Part One

Will be hassling another city

Exhale. It's over, Jay Cutler is not coming to Washington.

I for one am pleased, this was never particularly well thought out in my opinion. Now that Jay is off to Chicago, let us review the critical elements of this story, what it means and what it might have meant for Washington. Today The Curly R debuts a five part series on the Jay Cutler deal.

Part One: Jay Does Not Get It
Part Two: Bad Advice
Part Three: We're Good Thanks
Part Four: We Already Have a QB
Part Five: Adult Time

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So Jay Cutler is going to the Chicago Bears for two first round picks, Kyle Orton and the teams are swapping third and fifth round picks. Does that seem like a good deal to you? It does to me and mainly because Washington did not make the deal. Why do I think it was good for Washington to stay away from this deal?

1. Jay Cutler does not understand the business of football. Jay was Mike Shanahan's boy, the Chosen One, the quarterback Mike searched eight years for after the retirement of John Elway. Just as Mike had become complacent and entitled in his stewardship of the Broncos over thirteen years, so had Jay Cutler come to assume in only two years as a full time starter that he was an untouchable cog in the wheel of Denver success.

He was wrong. When Mike would not agree to surrender some control over the team, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen had no choice but to fire him and retake control of his team. Thirty-two year old Josh McDaniels, wunderkind former Patriots offensive coordinator and outer reaches candidate for Redskins head coach in 2008, became the new coach. Josh has no investment in Jay Cutler and that is where Jay went wrong.

Contrary to the opinion of many, Josh did not make a rookie mistake in wondering aloud if Jay might best serve the team in trade. No one can fault Josh for wanting Matt Cassel, it looks like Tom Brady's understudy is ready for a leading role.

No, the rookie mistake was with new Broncos general manager Brian Xanders and ownership not being able to pull the trigger on the deal for Matt. With Mike Shanahan no longer there to guide player moves and maneuver with other teams, hello Clinton Portis for Champ Bailey, the team acted clumsily and made a misstep.

Fucking duh, with Patriots assistant general manager Scott Pioli moving from New England to Kansas City, Josh McDaniels moving to Denver and Tom Brady coming back as the starter it should not have taken a fucking football genius to figure out that Matt Cassel's services were going to be in demand.

So Denver could not get the deal done but let word of the deal get on the street.

And that is where Jay Cutler failed to understand the rules of the game off the field. He represents an investment by the team. As a collective of ability, cost and duration of contract, he has value to Denver as well as any other team that may wish to do business with Denver.

And due to those three factors, ability, cost and duration of contract, Jay may be relatively more valuable to another team than to Denver. Denver was interested in parlaying that value into Matt Cassell, likely through a third party. Another team gets Jay in exchange for draft picks and possibly players, Denver uses the draft picks and possibly players to trade the Patriots for Matt.

It was not personal. Jay is not going to go hungry. Josh has no history with Jay. It is not disrespect, it is playing by the rules of the business. Sometimes as a player you are most valuable to your team in currency.

And failing to understand that, Jay Cutler made some bad decisions.


Well That's Over continues tonight with part two, Bad Advice.



Jay Cutler: Getty Images from here.