Leave the hard stuff to the grownups
Football may be a kid's game, Redskins fans still want someone serious in charge. Curly R's five part series on the Jay Cutler deal concludes.
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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The Broncos may have putatively downgraded at the quarterback position in the deal sending Jay Cutler to the Bears, their future looks brighter with two incoming first round picks. My football intuition tells me Denver will be looking for some players with maturity in coming drafts.
5. And that quarterback is kind of a grown up. A great deal of air has been expended on the notion that if the Redskins went hard for Jay Cutler and could not make the deal happen that they would have to part ways with Jason Campbell anyway for fear that what happened to Jay Cutler would happen to Jason Campell, i.e. that once he realized the team had a mind to trade him he would become disgruntled or a problem player.
Bullshit. Jason knows the deal. He was a first round pick, one the team traded three picks to move up and get and a pick Joe Gibbs loved and defended at every opportunity. And his rookie contract is coming to an end after 2009. None of this Jay Cutler stuff is really news to Jason, or else Washington would have given Jason a new contract by now.
Jason knows there is no new deal coming for him until they see how he does at least part way through 2009. He knows the team is not sold on him, that his guardian angel in Joe Gibbs is gone and that the teamis settling on him for now, that any moment things could change. He is looking at restricted free agency after this season if the collective bargaining agreement is not renewed.
The notion that almost getting traded would somehow freak Jason out now is nuts, Jason is a total professional and knows exactly what he has to do to stay under center on Sundays for the Redskins or any other team.
By making himself the story Jay showed everything you need to know about his mental approach to the game. Football is not a don't fuck with me game, it is a make me earn it game. Jay feels like he has already earned it. Jason wants to show you.
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Over at Hog Heaven, Tony Brown has an excellent piece wondering why Josh McDaniels has not already been fired for alienating Denver's best player and forcing a trade. I tend to disagree with this premise, Jay should have been smart enough and had skin thick enough to know he is a valuable commodity in the NFL but with a new coach not automatically loyal to him that said value could lie with another team. Perhaps I am inappropriately anchored to an apocryphal NFL past where coaches like Bill Parcells and Jimmy Johnson cut guys from the practice field and threatened to your face to trade you if you missed another blocking assignment. Mark Steven at The Om Field also has a great piece assessing the risk of a Jay Cutler move to Washington.
I am just happy Jay is not here, and frankly I do not want Byron Leftwich here either.
Jay Cutler: Getty Images from here.
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