Medford Bronco
11-06-2008, 09:10 AM
I usually dont agree with Kizla but I think this is a good article here
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_10910531
Quarterback Jay Cutler and the offense have been frustrated the last five games, failing to reach 20 points in any of those games. (John Leyba, The Denver Post )Our mop-topped Kid QB is right about one thing. Nobody in the game can fling a football harder than Jay Cutler. His arm is brilliant.Trouble is: Jay-C is messed up in the head.
"What's wrong with his state of mind?" said Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who really doesn't have a good answer how Cutler went from an MVP candidate to a target of boos in the span of four losses. "That's just the nature of this game."
And that's precisely the problem.
For all the big money and breathless hype the NFL bestows on its young gunslingers, the league does a remarkably lousy job of developing young quarterbacks. This year's Matt Ryan could be next season's Matt Leinart. Star today, bum tomorrow.
If the Broncos are not real careful, they are going to do serious and perhaps irreparable damage to the only player who stands between where they are now, atop the weakest division in pro football, and the pits, where the five weakest teams in the league reside.
Cutler is not John Elway.
But he is the biggest talent to walk through the doors of Dove Valley since Terrell Davis.
Trouble is: After going through a slump so wretched his interceptions now seem colorblind, Cutler now seems convinced the reason Denver has lost four of five games is because: "It's my fault."
While Cutler's sense of responsibility is admirable, young quarterbacks crumble all too often because they take far too much on their shoulders. (See: Young, Vince.)
Locking Cutler in a dark room with videotape evidence of his turnovers will not fix what's wrong here.
What Cutler really needs is a shrink. Or a guru.
The word around the league is what some of us have suspected since his meltdown late in an embarrassing, error-filled loss at Kansas City more than a month ago. If you can get inside Cutler's head, you can rattle the inexperienced QB by turning his amped-up competitiveness against him.
In baseball, it's a common affliction among phenom pitchers. Great stuff. Bad make-up.
So stop it from becoming a fatal flaw in Cutler. Teaching him not to sweat all the small stuff, from trash talk on the field to those drunken Bozos in the stands, is of far more lasting importance than making the playoffs in 2008.
Trouble is: Shanahan believes in the old-school, rub-some-dirt-on-your-bruised- ego philosophy of football. For all Shanny's obvious attributes, touchy-feely will never be his coaching strength.
When the Broncos have invested more than $10 million in guaranteed money to Cutler, however, it doesn't make much sense to entrust his maturation process to Jeremy Bates, a 32-year-old quarterbacks coach learning on the job.
Bullish on Cutler since before Denver drafted him, let me repeat: The Broncos can win a Super Bowl somewhere down the road with him as their leading man.
First, however, there are some emotional scars to repair. At Vanderbilt, Cutler lost nearly three dozen times in four college seasons. As a Broncos starter, he has gone 13-16 in an NFL town that demands excellence.
Here's guessing too much losing has blurred his vision, causing Cutler to see football as a game of him against the world, whether he is trying to squeeze a pass between two defenders or rolling his eyes at silly 2 0/20 hindsight questions in a postgame news conference.
"This game is tricky, especially as a quarterback," Cutler said. Especially since he is being asked to bail out the least-talented team Shanahan has ever put on the field in Denver.
Share Your Analysis
Post sports columnist Mark Kiszla fields your feedback. Look for it in Kickin' It With Kiz every Saturday.
Yes, these Broncos are worse than the 6-10 squad from 1999, or did you forget that fall from Super Bowl grace happened despite the presence of Rod Smith, Tom Nalen, Shannon Sharpe, Trevor Pryce, Bill Romanowski and Al Wilson?
Cutler has not been the same player since Shanahan, looking for any way to keep his miserable defense on the bench, ordered a painfully conservative game plan that worked against Tampa Bay, but broke the trust between the young quarterback and his coaches.
During the course of three straight, confidence-shaking defeats, when Cutler isn't straining so hard to let his bravado show that a turnover of youthful arrogance results, he seems discouraged to the point of boredom by ball-control tactics that do not play to his physical gifts.
Cutler will never be a game manager. This is a natural born game-changer.
It is the age-old challenge of harnessing raw, unrefined talent. Cutler must be taught to think like a winner, without killing the rebel spirit that makes him believe no deficit is too daunting and no throw is impossible.
If Shanahan truly is a football genius, how hard can that be?
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_10910531
Quarterback Jay Cutler and the offense have been frustrated the last five games, failing to reach 20 points in any of those games. (John Leyba, The Denver Post )Our mop-topped Kid QB is right about one thing. Nobody in the game can fling a football harder than Jay Cutler. His arm is brilliant.Trouble is: Jay-C is messed up in the head.
"What's wrong with his state of mind?" said Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who really doesn't have a good answer how Cutler went from an MVP candidate to a target of boos in the span of four losses. "That's just the nature of this game."
And that's precisely the problem.
For all the big money and breathless hype the NFL bestows on its young gunslingers, the league does a remarkably lousy job of developing young quarterbacks. This year's Matt Ryan could be next season's Matt Leinart. Star today, bum tomorrow.
If the Broncos are not real careful, they are going to do serious and perhaps irreparable damage to the only player who stands between where they are now, atop the weakest division in pro football, and the pits, where the five weakest teams in the league reside.
Cutler is not John Elway.
But he is the biggest talent to walk through the doors of Dove Valley since Terrell Davis.
Trouble is: After going through a slump so wretched his interceptions now seem colorblind, Cutler now seems convinced the reason Denver has lost four of five games is because: "It's my fault."
While Cutler's sense of responsibility is admirable, young quarterbacks crumble all too often because they take far too much on their shoulders. (See: Young, Vince.)
Locking Cutler in a dark room with videotape evidence of his turnovers will not fix what's wrong here.
What Cutler really needs is a shrink. Or a guru.
The word around the league is what some of us have suspected since his meltdown late in an embarrassing, error-filled loss at Kansas City more than a month ago. If you can get inside Cutler's head, you can rattle the inexperienced QB by turning his amped-up competitiveness against him.
In baseball, it's a common affliction among phenom pitchers. Great stuff. Bad make-up.
So stop it from becoming a fatal flaw in Cutler. Teaching him not to sweat all the small stuff, from trash talk on the field to those drunken Bozos in the stands, is of far more lasting importance than making the playoffs in 2008.
Trouble is: Shanahan believes in the old-school, rub-some-dirt-on-your-bruised- ego philosophy of football. For all Shanny's obvious attributes, touchy-feely will never be his coaching strength.
When the Broncos have invested more than $10 million in guaranteed money to Cutler, however, it doesn't make much sense to entrust his maturation process to Jeremy Bates, a 32-year-old quarterbacks coach learning on the job.
Bullish on Cutler since before Denver drafted him, let me repeat: The Broncos can win a Super Bowl somewhere down the road with him as their leading man.
First, however, there are some emotional scars to repair. At Vanderbilt, Cutler lost nearly three dozen times in four college seasons. As a Broncos starter, he has gone 13-16 in an NFL town that demands excellence.
Here's guessing too much losing has blurred his vision, causing Cutler to see football as a game of him against the world, whether he is trying to squeeze a pass between two defenders or rolling his eyes at silly 2 0/20 hindsight questions in a postgame news conference.
"This game is tricky, especially as a quarterback," Cutler said. Especially since he is being asked to bail out the least-talented team Shanahan has ever put on the field in Denver.
Share Your Analysis
Post sports columnist Mark Kiszla fields your feedback. Look for it in Kickin' It With Kiz every Saturday.
Yes, these Broncos are worse than the 6-10 squad from 1999, or did you forget that fall from Super Bowl grace happened despite the presence of Rod Smith, Tom Nalen, Shannon Sharpe, Trevor Pryce, Bill Romanowski and Al Wilson?
Cutler has not been the same player since Shanahan, looking for any way to keep his miserable defense on the bench, ordered a painfully conservative game plan that worked against Tampa Bay, but broke the trust between the young quarterback and his coaches.
During the course of three straight, confidence-shaking defeats, when Cutler isn't straining so hard to let his bravado show that a turnover of youthful arrogance results, he seems discouraged to the point of boredom by ball-control tactics that do not play to his physical gifts.
Cutler will never be a game manager. This is a natural born game-changer.
It is the age-old challenge of harnessing raw, unrefined talent. Cutler must be taught to think like a winner, without killing the rebel spirit that makes him believe no deficit is too daunting and no throw is impossible.
If Shanahan truly is a football genius, how hard can that be?