The Denver Broncos' Solution to the Jay Cutler Mess: DO NOTHING!

(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

First of all, no team is going to give up the sort of difference making player at a critical position in a trade.

Every franchise has guys that are untouchable because if they give those guys up, they won't be any better than Denver is now, and if that be the case, what is the point in trading for Cutler anyway, especially since they would also give up the draft picks that would use to try to replace their cornerstones?

Also, as stated already, even if Denver were to get a couple of starters in a trade and use the draft picks to select a couple more starters, they still wouldn't be any good because they still wouldn't have a quarterback. Sure, maybe they'd be 8-8 instead of 4-12, but they still wouldn't be a playoff team.

Instead, they'd be paying a lot more money to the guys and draft picks that they got for Cutler for the privilege of not being any good until they get an effective QB. You go sell the Broncos owner Pat Bowlen on spending more money to NOT make the playoffs and see how far that gets you.

Bowlen will reply that if he wanted that, he would have never fired Dan Reeves, let alone Mike Shanahan.

So, since trading Cutler benefits Denver in no way, why do it? No one can provide an answer. The media will never acknowledge this, because the media has an interest in making sure that star QBs in the NFL continue to get pampered.

So what.

The media is not going to win a single game for the Broncos, nor will they write a single check to Pat Bowlen to help him pay his players.

What the media WILL do is mock Denver for the next 20 years if Cutler goes on to have a Hall of Fame career somewhere else, and the Broncos should keep that in mind when the media is ripping them to shreds for refusing to give into Cutler's demands.

And the guy who will receive the brunt of the abuse will be Josh McDaniels, who would be fired within three seasons and unable to get another head coaching job ... a career ruined by age 35.

That is just one benefit to saying "Us or nobody" to Cutler. Another benefit: It strengthens the position of McDaniels with the players that Denver will still have. Another benefit still: A league without Cutler in it will be an easier league for the teams that don't have Cutler—including Denver—to win games and compete for the playoffs.

Is that much to gain by keeping Cutler on the sidelines? No. But that isn't the point. The point is that if Cutler isn't going to play for Denver, then they lose anyway. Keeping Cutler from playing elsewhere allows them to cut their losses.

It is not in the NFL's best interests?

Well, life will move on in the NFL, who will just find another star to promote. Is it in Jay Cutler's best interests? No, but Jay Cutler is a grown man with tens of millions of dollars in the bank who can take care of himself.

It is in the best interests of the Broncos, and if the Broncos don't look out for their own interests, who will? Not the NFL franchises trying to beat the Broncos on the field, and certainly not Jay Cutler.

Besides, time is on the Broncos' side. Right now, the fans and the media are backing Cutler and blaming the Broncos, especially McDaniels.

The only reason is not the facts of the case—that Denver has the right to trade any player that they choose, that McDaniels has the right to get the players that he wants, and it is in the interests of the Broncos and in general the NFL to assert the authority of the coach, general manager, and owner (in all of whose eyes Cutler is sticking his thumbs right now), or else the NFL will descend into the repugnant chaos that the NBA was a few years ago.

The last one is key. The media would love to keep the line going that "quawtabacks is special!" and that the league should bend over backwards to keep them happy.

The truth is that the other players aren't going to buy some grotesque standard where the QB is pampered while the guys who the QB cannot possibly win without have to "shut up and play!"

It will take approximately five seconds before a guy gets it into his head "you think your QB is all that? Fine...see how good he is without me blocking/running the ball/catching the ball/playing defense for him.

As a matter of fact, Cutler's biggest defenders love to point out "he hasn't had any help!" to explain away the fact that he hasn't had a winning season since high school.

Of course, it is true—though not as ironclad as Cutler apologists claim—but that is all the more reason why the Broncos can't and shouldn't buy the media line that they should accommodate Cutler because QBs are so special.

In truth, accommodating Cutler would set a bad precedent for the franchise and the NFL.

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