Shutdown Corner - NFL

Maybe Josh McDaniels will turn out to be a great head coach. Maybe he'll go on to win five Super Bowls and make everyone in Denver forget Mike Shanahan.

But it's really, really hard to see that from here.

In his first two months on the job, McDaniels's lone accomplishment as Denver head coach has been to alienate the most important player in the franchise. Forget the issue of who's right and who's wrong, the bottom line is that Jay Cutler, the franchise quarterback, now seems to hate McDaniels and has officially asked to be traded.

That's not good. In fact, it's a giant step backwards. Part of being head coach in the NFL today is soothing bruised egos, and even if Cutler is being a baby (and he absolutely is), he's still the quarterback you have, and you've still got to find a way to make it work. So far, McDaniels has failed colossally.

Costing the company one of its most valuable assets is generally not want you want to do when you start working somewhere. It's like being hired at McDonalds headquarters and immediately injecting salmonella into all the Big Macs. It's like being hired at Sterling Cooper, and on your first day, slapping Don Draper in the face and then sleeping with his wife.

You just wouldn't do that. He's your star. You need him happy. At the very least, you need him to be willing to continue working there.

Eventually, who knows, Josh McDaniels might actually do something positive for the Broncos organization. He hasn't yet, though. All he's done is take the Broncos a huge step closer to reverting to the post-Elway era of shuffling mediocre quarterbacks.

digg delicious
more

877 Comments

Post a Comment
  1. Oakes
    1. Posted by Oakes Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:01 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    McDaniels job on a platter is what im callin for, bring back Shanny
  2. BroncosFanInVegas
    2. Posted by BroncosFanInVegas Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:57 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    McD Needs To Start Smooching Some Rear-End!!! Big Time!!!
  3. Steve "The Hack" Cofield
    3. Posted by Steve "The Hack" Cofield Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:21 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Not his fault, plain and simple. Cutler needs to grow up.
  4. Dolphins Are Cheaters
    4. Posted by Dolphins Are Cheaters Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:55 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Cutler is a cry-baby and needs to. WA WA WA I can't have my way so I'm taking my ball and going home.WA WA WA.
  5. Dolphins Are Cheaters
    5. Posted by Dolphins Are Cheaters Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:55 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    sorry some how dropped the grow up from the first part.
  6. Steve "The Hack" Cofield
    6. Posted by Steve "The Hack" Cofield Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:21 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Maybe if Jay had to scrimp and scrape along and work 2 or 3 jobs he might appreciate the position he's in atm and not complain because someone mentioned cutler and trade in the same sentence.
    It's pathetic how spoiled these little punks are. That goes for every major sport.
  7. BroncosFanInNJ
    7. Posted by BroncosFanInNJ Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:31 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Why would you even consider a trade for Cassel anyway, Cutler has way more talent. McDaniels needs to figure a way to get Jay back on board and fast.
  8. g mack
    8. Posted by g mack Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:07 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    cutler to the lions for pick 20
  9. thom
    9. Posted by thom Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:08 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    denver should fire mcdaniels and hire romell carnell. atleast romell knows who's a great qb n who's not! cassel had one good yr on tom brady's team! even alex smith could have done that good in new england!
  10. Raider Fan
    10. Posted by Raider Fan Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:39 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    This one is out of control and I doubt there's anything that can be done to repair this little problem. Here's the solution: Trade Cutler and their first round pick to Detroit for the number one pick in the draft. Denver can draft their QB of the future (whoever that is) and Detroit would have a QB with some proven talent. Detroit may actually win 5 games this year!!!
  11. Raider Fan
    11. Posted by Raider Fan Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:39 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    g mack, ya beat me to it! Kudos to you my friend!
  12. Brofins
    12. Posted by Brofins Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:01 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    OMG has Pat Bowlen turned into the next Al Davis? What the heck are you thinking? First Shanahan now Cutler. What kind of dementia do you have? Turn a 1st grade program into a run of the mill program with little to none leadership. COME ON BOWLEN SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  13. Greg A
    13. Posted by Greg A Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:48 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    First of all like the article says, forget who's right or wrong here, the fact is this Mr. McDaniels came in like a house of fire all pumped up to be "coach" and screwed up! You don't walk into your first head coach job and immediately try to trade the franchise and pro bowl QB you inherited. Look at it this way, it was only a matter of days/weeks after he was hired. You mean to tell me, he absolutely knew Cassel was better than Cutler or could run his system better without giving Cutler so much as a chance at it??? That is completely moronic not to mention that fact that Cassel had ONE good year so far. And here he is trying to bring in a new guy to run an already VERY efficient offense. All he needed to do was reform the defense.......add a few big name runningbacks and that was it!! But no the idiot wanted to make everything his own and he wanted to bring in all his former Pats guys to do it........Hey McDaniels take note, this is not the Denver Patriots. I mean look at free agency......while all the big name defenders were being snatched up, who was our first guy we took???? the New England Patriots long snapper!!!! Are you kidding me?????????? I had my doubts when we hired some NE Patriots trash to begin with and i have even more now. Get ti together rookie coach, you have a LOT to learn boy!
  14. Steven B
    14. Posted by Steven B Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:03 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    The Broncos are quickly becoming the laughing stock of the NFL and McDaniels is the main contributor!
  15. Mark B
    15. Posted by Mark B Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:00 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I can why he is upset, he is told he is the man and then he finds out for the right price is gone
  16. smaku
    16. Posted by smaku Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:28 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Both sides are handling this poorly. Cutler is being a total baby and McDaniels couldn't have handled this any worse. Yes, it is a business and Cutler needs to understand that, but part of running a business is knowing how to manage the talent that you have. McDaniel's inexperience as HC is so blatantly obvious.
    Cutler has also handled this in a very disappointing way. If Cutler has been in the league 10 years, made it to 5 pro-bowls with multiple winning seasons and solid playoff play, then you can say "I'm the franchise, I'm a permanent piece of the puzzle." You made it to one pro-bowl....ooooooohhhh. Don't act all surprised that your name is the subject of trade rumor.
    Especially with a new coach in town.
  17. jeremyvillano
    17. Posted by jeremyvillano Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:33 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Yes, what better way for McDaniels to take over and lead this team than by allowing a whiny, overstuffed QB (and his deeply conniving agent, Bus Cook) to run roughshod over him and to publicly subvert his authority at every moment.
    As we learned from some recent reporting over at ProFootballTalk, turns out Bus Cook has a great solution to all these problems he is exacerbating:
    Give Cutler a big, fat new contract!
    Shocker!
    So now we find out this isn't about respect, or loyalty, or anything so grandiose. It's about money, plain and simple. It's about a taking an opportunity to beat up on a rookie head coach to satisfy Bus Cook's greed and Jay Cutler's arrogance.
    And once again, as both the Packers and Jets found out, it's a slimy con artist named Bus Cook at the root of it all.
  18. 619RAIDER
    18. Posted by 619RAIDER Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:44 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    raider fan, whats up!!!! im just glad to see this franchise in termoil and not ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! go raiders,nice signing of barnes. 619raider.
  19. DeanR
    19. Posted by DeanR Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:39 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    What should have happenned in the first place was for Bowlen and Shannahan to have a sit down and relieve Shannahan of all those extra jobs that were taking away from his "coaching" abilities. Put the focus where it needed to be and none of this would be happenning. Shannahan is one of the greatest coaches in history, he was just doing "too much". As for McDaniels..........WTF man?
  20. Tom C
    20. Posted by Tom C Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:57 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Ok. I'm in agreement about Cutler having to grow up. However, I understand where he's coming from. I'm in his corner and I back him up more than McDaniels. McDaniels hasn't proven himself in the NFL and needs to get Cutler back into the fold, otherwise, you have Chris Simms as the starter. Not to say that Simms can't play, he can but he's a little rusty.
    Back to Jay Cutler. I personally know what it's like to have people who you trust, stab you in the back. You're thinking that everything is fine, going great and everyone is sync with each other. Then, out of the blue, it hits the fan and nothing but shock and awe are going through you. He was going along with the program and next thing you know, he's possibly being traded for Matt Cassel.
    Which is fine because trades, be it that they are good or bad are a part of football. Same as baseball, basketball and hockey, (soccer is not a sport, so no need to talk about MLS trades). I understand why he's mad, the Broncos totally threw him into the fire. Being from Massachusetts, I'm a Patriots fan, however, I like other teams. The Broncos happen to be 1 of those teams.
    Why they got rid of Shanahan is beyond me. Shanahan is the head coach and everyone is with the program. McDaniels comes in and the place is in upheavel. Again, I'm in Jay Cutler's corner and will back him up.
    Once again, I personally know what it's like to be talked about behind your back, you don't have a clue what's happening and you think that everything is going fine and then everything comes out in the open and then your head is spinning and the trust that you had is suddenly gone and you become a very guarded person.
    You then realize that the only people that you can trust is your family, parents, siblings etc... I hope that he gets traded and goes back and beats the Broncos 100-0. So you know what, GO JAY CUTLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  21. jeremyvillano
    21. Posted by jeremyvillano Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:33 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    By the way, all this chatter about "Cutler to the Lions" for pick #20 is comical.
    You can't say how great Cutler is out of one side of your mouth, and then say he'll be traded for pennies on the dollar out the other side. Not to mention everyone knows this year's crop of draft QBs is mediocre.
    If Cutler is as great as he and his agent think he is, Cook and Cutler better line up one of the most amazing trades in history. If they want him to be the highest paid player in the league (which they do), the trade asking price is gonna be very, very high.
    I'm no GM, but I can't see trading him for anything less than a 1st, a 2nd, and an elite starter on the d-line. And probably some middle to late rounders from next years draft as well. If Cleveland wants him, anything less than Quinn, Shaun Rogers, and at the LEAST a position switch in RD 1 is necessary (but hardly sufficient).
    If he's so good and irreplaceable as MJD says, well, then ya better pay up, Detroit (or Cleveland) fans...
  22. Tom C
    22. Posted by Tom C Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:57 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Also, Matt Cassel is an ok QB. He's not great. Tom Brady went down and he took control of the reins and steered the horses very well but 1 good year as opposed to Jay Cutler, who's a Pro Bowler, I don't think so.
  23. Older_than_Moses_Shaq
    23. Posted by Older_than_Moses_Shaq Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:56 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Let him complain all he wants. Fine him until he comes in. Let him ride pine. It's about time the punk grew up.
  24. Scott
    24. Posted by Scott Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:56 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I think it's hilarious that you have these Bellichick disciples that think they can get away with that "it's my way or the highway" nonsense. How did that work for Weiss, Crennel, and Mangini? Not a surprise it's not working for McDaniels either...
    http://www.theklowntimes.net
  25. Jimmie B
    25. Posted by Jimmie B Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:15 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I'm on Cutlers side on this one. There will be all kinds of spin by Pats fans making their former asst.coach and Cassel look good so their precious team will be glorified. I say to the devil with them.

Shutdown Corner

Add to My Yahoo! RSS

MJD

Shutdown Corner is an NFL blog edited by Matthew J. Darnell. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

Teams

Customize to follow news and rumors on your favorite teams. [ Sign in ]

Related Photo Gallery

Y! Sports Blogs

Shutdown Corner Recent Readers