What's Next for the Broncos and Jay Cutler?

It's all but a foregone conclusion that Jay Cutler will not be back in Denver next season.

In what has been a tumultuous offseason to say the least—and one heck of a soap opera—the Broncos came out on Tuesday and publicly stated that Cutler was on the block after the QB skipped the offseason workouts and the lines of communication never being re-opened.

I think Denver will end up being the loser in the long run this time, because finding a franchise QB is an extremely difficult thing to do in today's NFL, let alone developing one. Further, while they weren't going to win anything of consequence in 2009, you always need the QB if your sights are set on a winning a championship...the 2000 Ravens being an anomaly.

So how can the Broncos make the best of a bad situation?

They can still parlay Cutler's youth and talent into a lot of compensation in the form of high draft picks and potential mid-level players.

Detroit is the obvious candidate because of their draft position. If you're the Lions, and you still plan on taking a QB, why invest over $30 million in guaranteed money into a player (Stafford) who has never played an NFL snap, especially when you can pick off a fourth year QB on the verge of becoming an elite signal caller?

The Jets have been thrown around as a possible suitor for Cutler, and for good reason—no established QB. 

However, the No. 17th pick in the draft isn't going to be enough to land a player of Cutler's caliber. They'd probably have to package multiple first, second, or third picks together, plus additional players on defense, to get something done.

And speaking of defense, this is a huge reason why the Broncos won't win anytime soon, and have come to conclude that they can afford to let Cutler go in order to build up that side of the ball while they find a signal caller that fits McDaniels' vision (to be safe and smart with the ball).

For whatever reason, ex-Patriot coaches tend to be a little cockier than the rest when they assume their first head coaching jobs. And McDaniels' handling of this situation is no different.

The problem for McDaniels, though, is he's likely to end up with the same fate as Mangini, Crennel, and Weis, all of whom found that the "Patriot way" only works when you have Belichick creating the schemes, and Brady lining up behind center.

Aside from that, it's just theory, and doesn't translate to success on the field.