I place a lot of the blame on Shanahan for the 600 passes. As you said, injuries really shouldn't have limited Denver's running game, and yet they still threw the ball 600 times. They had a better YPC than we did, but opted to toss the ball. Whatever the reason, teams still knew that the Broncos were going to air it out and set their defenses accordingly. I doubt we'd have that problem here, thus giving Cutler more freedom. I also think the fact that teams respect Cutler already would open up the game for Leon, an added bonus. Your second point is definitely a concern. I could sit here and say that the D again didn't put them in position to succeed (I read that Denver had the 2nd or 3rd worst starting field position in the league), but I really don't have stats in front of me and can't remember where they were. I'll try to find them. Either way, the lack of scoring is certainly a valid problem, and a reason why some may not want him. 7th in TDs, but 13th in TD% is problematic.
I agree that we should offer a bag of cocks. Name Ratliff as Q take the draft picks and make a good pick for once. I can't imagine rooting for this little whiney bitch week in and week out.
Did you mean you hope we DON'T draft Harvin or trade for Cutler? If so, no need to apologize. I may change it anyway. It's really not worth offending some of the better posters on this board.
This is ridiculous. Denver had 1,003 pass attempts plus rushes last year. The New Orleans Saints had 1,033 plays from scrimmage. It's what New Orleans did with those 1,033 plays, which was to score 463 points, which is noteworthy. With 30 less plays at his disposal, or about 3% less plays, Cutler lead his team to 93 less points. Cutler had plenty of opportunity to run the Denver offense, he just didn't do it particularly efficiently given the opportunity he was afforded. If Cutler had lead his team the way Drew Brees lead the Saints the Broncos go 12-4 last year. If Brees had performed as Cutler did the Saints go 4-12. The Baltimore Ravens, BTW, had 1,020 plays from scrimmage and scored 15 points more than the Broncos in the extra 17 plays. With Joe Flacco at QB and his rookie 80.3 rating. The Dolphins, with game manager Chad at QB had only 939 pass attempts plus rushes and scored 25 less points in in the 64 less plays. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Cutler's underperformance over the course of the year in producing points with the opportunities he was given was a heavy contributor to the Broncos not winning the one extra game they needed in there somewhere to make the playoffs.
Yardage is virtually equal between the two teams. Again, Denver was worst in the league in takeaways. Couple a slightly more opportunistic defense in New Orleans with a MUCH better return game and you can see why New Orleans had a shorter field to play with.
BTW, I do happen to agree that if you put Brees on the Broncos, they're a playoff team. I'm not about to compare the two of them. However, that doesn't change the fact that Cutler is much more of a certainty than what we currently have, and at the age of 25, worth a couple of 1sts. Having said that, if the price rises, or we don't get him for another reason, I'm still going to be happy going with what we have.
I think your analysis of Denver's running attacked is flawed once you look deeper in the numbers. Denver ranked 28th in rushing attempts at 387. Of those attempts 57 were by Cutler (that's nearly 4 per game) and 34 (9%) came in their blowout win over OAK in Week 1. The only game the committed to running the ball in the first quarter was the CLE game when Torrian tore his ACL. Add on top of that that there most successful rusher (Hillis) was not a homerun threat (for the few games he shined before getting injured). No team game-planned for Denver's rushing attack last year. The key was always to stop Cutler / the passing game. Cutler wasn't perfect last year (e.g. Buffalo game) but he carried a team that had no business being .500 to an 8-8 record. If the team had started 2-2, people would be praising Cutler for getting the team to eight wins.
There are ten teams interested in Cutler and he is under contract, so of course the Broncos have hand a plenty. The trade game starts at two first round pics, AND THEN SOME. Thats the minimum and goes up from there. Two 1st rounder, more pics and a player. Its going to be a huge swap.
people are forgetting cutler just finished playing his second season. some are talking like he's a seasoned vet,(ala brees). for a guy in his second season, he was better than anything the jets have ever had...
Yeah, if bidding starts at two firsts, and a significant number of teams remain in the bidding, I'm gonna have to pull my support of the deal. Let's see what happens.
Brees doesn't make the Broncos Defense any less worse. The Broncos won almost every game where they defense showed up to play. I mean come on 6 interceptions, 9 forced fumbles, 26 sacks, and allowed 50 touchdowns for the whole season. Our pre-upgraded Jets defense got 14 interceptions, 29 forced fumbles, 41 sacks, and allowed 40 touchdowns. Think about how bad our play calling and coaching (LOLBOB) was on defense sometimes and we still managed to almost double the Broncos defense overall effectiveness. Saying Jay Cutler failed in leading his team to the playoffs is unfair when the other half his team couldn't produce the whole year. He is something like 13-1 when the defense held the other team below 21 points. That being said I'm pretty apathetic when it comes whether we get him or we stay with BR or KC. I think getting Cutler helps our offense more than either of those two can in the beginning of the season. The first couple games BR/KC play they are really going to be tested because the box is going to be very crowded until they prove they can perform. Similar to Favre, Cutler makes defenses think twice about focusing on the run game.
Which limits what I'd be willing to pay. We need that 2nd rounder to go to a WR if we're going to invest in Cutler.
