The ongoing saga in Denver

While Jay Cutler hasn't shown himself to be a PR genius this offseason, he's not to blame for the quandary in which he and the Broncos find themselves. He's not entirely innocent either. But new boss Josh McDaniels needs to look no farther than a mirror to see where this all began.

This offseason it's more apparent than ever that the Broncos rule Denver. Despite the Nuggets making their case as the best (non-Lakers) team in the west, the Avalanche playing their worst hockey ever, and the Rockies just weeks away from the season, one team steals all the headlines. In fact, the Broncos rule not only Colorado but an entire time zone and mountain range.

When the Broncos fired Mike Shanahan in December, the move was met with mixed emotions. He took the Broncos to the pinnacle of football. They were untouchable for two seasons. He and John Elway pretty much own this city. Elway pretty much owns Cleveland to boot.

Yet after years of poor drafts, failed free agent signings, a revolving-door for defensive coordinators, early postseason exits and late-season swoons, Denver was growing restless. The last straw came when the Donkeys failed to make the playoffs after sitting at 8-5 with a three-game divisional lead. Pat Bowlen joined in the trendy mantra of the time and decided for change.

In comes coaching wunderkind Josh McDaniels, the offensive mastermind of the New England Patriots. He coached Matt Cassel to a remarkable season after Tom Brady's season-ending injury in week one. Wanting to mark the team as his own, he stuck his nose back up Bill Belichick's ass and tried to bring Cassel with him up to 5280 feet. By thinking JV Cassel is a superior quarterback to JC Saves and trying to swap them, all he's done is urinate all over this team and this town.

New England was a far superior team to Denver last year. Proof is no clearer than in their week seven matchup when they manahndled the Broncos so badly that Denver probably wished the NFL had a rule like the WBC. Last season, the edge went to the Patriots at every position, sans quarterback. Cassel was surrounded by a team that was coming off an 18-1 season. Cutler had a nine-headed infirmary in his backfield, an offensive line that was re-quilted each week, and a defense that Lincoln Elementary could have scored on at recess. If McDaniels had had Cutler and Cassel manned the Broncos, I'm pretty certain he would agree with me.

Blame has turned to Cutler as he's shown his immaturity and perpetuated the situation. I can understand that he's upset. His QB coach/offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates - another young offensive guru - left for USC upon McDaniels' arrival. Then he finds out from his cousin's neighbor's ex-roommate's postman that his new coach is trying to ship him off for his own guy from New England.

Cutler is far and away the best player the Broncos have. He has a lot of room for growth and hasn't accomplished much of anything yet, but he will be an elite quarterback in the NFL.

Franchise quarterbacks are hard to find. The Broncos pulled a deal for one in 1983. But after #7's retirement, it took them eight years to find their next in Cutler. With this year's draft so QB-thin and with so many other areas needing to be addressed by the draft, trading Cutler would cripple the franchise - especially after they traded up on draft day to get him in 2006.

A Cutler trade would have to bring another top-calibre young signal caller to the Mile High City. That being said, any trade would be a downgrade. The only acceptable, potentially feasible deal would be to bring Brady Quinn to Denver. Bernie Blozar would be thrilled, and might subsequently murder The Doob. (No, we don't want Derek Anderson.)

I hope Jay Cutler comes to work to show that he's the man in Denver and the Broncos are his team.

I hope Josh McDaniels comes to his senses and decides he wants to be the head coach of the Denver Broncos, not the New England Patriots West.

I hope Matt Cassel is a failure in Kansas City. It's not that I don't like him - I'm sure he's a nice guy. He had a great year and is a talented quarterback. I just hate his team.

As for Mike Shanahan, maybe he'll end up in South Bend in 2010. After all, he's available.

Mighty Quinn

I'm sure our resident Browns fan will have something to add to this based on his insider's perspective, but I'm really wondering about this switch to Brady by the Browns for this game.  Quinn will pretty much get one practice as the starting QB to prepare for Denver.  That's really not a lot of time to prepare as the starter for your first career regular season start.  On the bright side for Quinn, he gets to play at home against the Broncos defense.

Considering Champ Bailey and Boss Bailey are out for the season, Williams is out for the game with a knee injury and the Denver defense has been pretty consistently gashed the entire season - short of playing the Raiders or Chiefs, Quinn has a good team to start against.  I can also see the problem that the Browns need to pick a QB, Anderson's averages over the last 16 games (eight this year, eight last year) are sub-par at best and if somehow Anderson has a good game against a bad Broncos team - it makes it look worse to replace him for next week.

So what do we know for certain?  If Quinn is going to be successful though, he's going to need more help than Anderson was getting.  Edwards needs to stop dropping the ball and the rest of the offense needs to pitch in.   I think it's also fair to say that Anderson is paid too much to be a backup and he'll need to get moved to another team, especially because if Quinn takes 55% of the snaps over the next two years (likely 50% for this year+potential starter for next year) his contract incentives are going to kick in.  Last point, this Broncos/Browns game really lacks the appeal of the rivalry from the days of John Elway and Bernie Kosar.  Games that saw "The Drive" and "The Fumble" were epic and instead our Thursday night entertainment will consist of two underperforming teams battling to be .500 in the standings.