Spiritguy
01-30-2009, 10:08 PM
His eyes have seen the glory. And it’s somebody else’s.
So Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler has no plans to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl because his team isn’t in it.
And having just completed his third NFL season and still waiting to make his first playoff start, Cutler certainly wants to be a part of the playoff party, but on the field, not in the stands.
“I haven’t been in a playoff or a bowl situation in eight years,” Cutler said, counting back to a state championship team at Heritage Hills High School in his senior season at the southern Indiana school.
“It sucks, it’s horrible. In high school you win state, you’re always making a push into the postseason, always been successful in sports. Come to Vandy, struggle there, come close my senior year (to a bowl game) and get to the NFL and go to an organization like the Broncos who’ve always been pretty dominant and struggle there and not make the playoffs. It’s tough, it’s really tough.”
With a new coach and plenty of work ahead of him as he learns a new offense, Cutler sees breaking the current Broncos’ postseason drought — one that cost the franchise’s winningest coach, Mike Shanahan, his job earlier this month — as the biggest item on his things-to-do list.
Asked Friday if he would trade his upcoming Pro Bowl appearance for a spot in the Super Bowl, Cutler simply said, “Any day of the week.”
In the Tampa area to visit children with diabetes as part of new initiative with his foundation, Cutler said the fact the Broncos have not made the postseason for three consecutive years — two of those with him as the starting quarterback — is at the forefront of his soon-to-be filled calendar.
“We’re not (far away),” Cutler said. “You know in this league, you got to get hot at the right time; obviously you’ve got to put yourself in a good position come December. If you get on a roll in December, play good football at the right time, you can definitely make a run at it.
“Pittsburgh did it a couple years ago and won the Super Bowl. They were a sixth seed and made a run. So we’re close, if you don’t make it happen, it’s been three years since I’ve been there and we haven’t made the playoffs. Mr. Bowlen has high standards.”
Both sides to blame
Cutler said the Broncos had too many turnovers on offense and didn’t score enough once inside their opponents’ 20-yard line and too many troubles on defense to have the AFC’s slot in the Super Bowl.
The Broncos surrendered more than 400 points for the second consecutive season and were at or near the bottom of the league’s rankings in every major defensive category.
“It’s very seldom that you see an offense that’s high powered that doesn’t have a good defense go all the way,” Cutler said. “Because sooner or later you’re going to get stopped and you’re going to need a defense to help you out.”
Cutler has spoken at length with new head coach Josh McDaniels on two separate occasions, the day after McDaniels was hired in Denver and Wednesday, just after Cutler arrived in Tampa. “It went really well,” Cutler said. “We talked about a lot of stuff, he’s very energetic, when I got off the phone I was excited, I really was ... just talked to him about the importance of our relationship.”
Cutler had been vocal in Shanahan’s departure initially offering, “I’m not happy at all,” but with a few weeks having passed and having spoken to Bowlen, Shanahan and McDaniels, Cutler said he understood why Bowlen made the change.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Cutler said. “Looking back on it, obviously everyone was shocked to see Mike go. But a month removed from it, I can kind of see the reasoning why he had to make the move. You’re at a place so long the stuff gets repetitive, you hear the same stories, the same talks. It’s time to move on.
“(I) talked to Mike after the whole thing went down. He sounded good. He’s disappointed; I think he understands kind of the reasoning. I think he was ready to go somewhere else and do something else.”
McDaniels said this week he didn’t expect to meet with the team as a whole for the first time until March, with Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Casey Wiegmann set to be at the Pro Bowl for a week as well as the scouting combine set for later in February.
Coming together in March
The Broncos, like any team that has hired a new coach, will get an extra mini-camp in the offseason and Cutler said he expected to report to work in the new offense in March.
McDaniels has discussed terminology that will be in the new offense with Cutler as well as the general principles, but Cutler has not yet seen a new playbook.
“All of it is going to be his own terminology, which is going to be different,” Cutler said. “We’re pretty young as an offense, a lot of guys came in with me, been in the same system for the last three years and were starting to get pretty good at it so we’ll have to take a couple steps back.
“We’ve got an extra minicamp to make that happen and we’ll have to work a little harder this offseason ... I’ll have to be working closely with Josh because we only have so much time to learn this. When I first got to Denver I had that whole first year to learn the system, we grew gradually. As I was capable to learn the system, we kind of grew with it. I think Brandon grew with me and Tony (Scheffler) and all those guys and now we’re going to jam it into a six-month period and make it happen.”
Cutler added he was almost certain Wiegmann, who had said after the season he would consider retirement, would return to the Broncos for the ’09 season.
“Casey’s coming back,” Cutler said. “I’m 95 percent certain. He wants to play, he loves it, he enjoys Denver, he enjoys playing with us. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting him to play. I’ve talked to Casey numerous times this offseason. I was excited to see him go to the Pro Bowl.”
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/30/broncos-cutler-wants-to-go-to-super-bowl-just/?partner=RSS
So Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler has no plans to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl because his team isn’t in it.
And having just completed his third NFL season and still waiting to make his first playoff start, Cutler certainly wants to be a part of the playoff party, but on the field, not in the stands.
“I haven’t been in a playoff or a bowl situation in eight years,” Cutler said, counting back to a state championship team at Heritage Hills High School in his senior season at the southern Indiana school.
“It sucks, it’s horrible. In high school you win state, you’re always making a push into the postseason, always been successful in sports. Come to Vandy, struggle there, come close my senior year (to a bowl game) and get to the NFL and go to an organization like the Broncos who’ve always been pretty dominant and struggle there and not make the playoffs. It’s tough, it’s really tough.”
With a new coach and plenty of work ahead of him as he learns a new offense, Cutler sees breaking the current Broncos’ postseason drought — one that cost the franchise’s winningest coach, Mike Shanahan, his job earlier this month — as the biggest item on his things-to-do list.
Asked Friday if he would trade his upcoming Pro Bowl appearance for a spot in the Super Bowl, Cutler simply said, “Any day of the week.”
In the Tampa area to visit children with diabetes as part of new initiative with his foundation, Cutler said the fact the Broncos have not made the postseason for three consecutive years — two of those with him as the starting quarterback — is at the forefront of his soon-to-be filled calendar.
“We’re not (far away),” Cutler said. “You know in this league, you got to get hot at the right time; obviously you’ve got to put yourself in a good position come December. If you get on a roll in December, play good football at the right time, you can definitely make a run at it.
“Pittsburgh did it a couple years ago and won the Super Bowl. They were a sixth seed and made a run. So we’re close, if you don’t make it happen, it’s been three years since I’ve been there and we haven’t made the playoffs. Mr. Bowlen has high standards.”
Both sides to blame
Cutler said the Broncos had too many turnovers on offense and didn’t score enough once inside their opponents’ 20-yard line and too many troubles on defense to have the AFC’s slot in the Super Bowl.
The Broncos surrendered more than 400 points for the second consecutive season and were at or near the bottom of the league’s rankings in every major defensive category.
“It’s very seldom that you see an offense that’s high powered that doesn’t have a good defense go all the way,” Cutler said. “Because sooner or later you’re going to get stopped and you’re going to need a defense to help you out.”
Cutler has spoken at length with new head coach Josh McDaniels on two separate occasions, the day after McDaniels was hired in Denver and Wednesday, just after Cutler arrived in Tampa. “It went really well,” Cutler said. “We talked about a lot of stuff, he’s very energetic, when I got off the phone I was excited, I really was ... just talked to him about the importance of our relationship.”
Cutler had been vocal in Shanahan’s departure initially offering, “I’m not happy at all,” but with a few weeks having passed and having spoken to Bowlen, Shanahan and McDaniels, Cutler said he understood why Bowlen made the change.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Cutler said. “Looking back on it, obviously everyone was shocked to see Mike go. But a month removed from it, I can kind of see the reasoning why he had to make the move. You’re at a place so long the stuff gets repetitive, you hear the same stories, the same talks. It’s time to move on.
“(I) talked to Mike after the whole thing went down. He sounded good. He’s disappointed; I think he understands kind of the reasoning. I think he was ready to go somewhere else and do something else.”
McDaniels said this week he didn’t expect to meet with the team as a whole for the first time until March, with Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Casey Wiegmann set to be at the Pro Bowl for a week as well as the scouting combine set for later in February.
Coming together in March
The Broncos, like any team that has hired a new coach, will get an extra mini-camp in the offseason and Cutler said he expected to report to work in the new offense in March.
McDaniels has discussed terminology that will be in the new offense with Cutler as well as the general principles, but Cutler has not yet seen a new playbook.
“All of it is going to be his own terminology, which is going to be different,” Cutler said. “We’re pretty young as an offense, a lot of guys came in with me, been in the same system for the last three years and were starting to get pretty good at it so we’ll have to take a couple steps back.
“We’ve got an extra minicamp to make that happen and we’ll have to work a little harder this offseason ... I’ll have to be working closely with Josh because we only have so much time to learn this. When I first got to Denver I had that whole first year to learn the system, we grew gradually. As I was capable to learn the system, we kind of grew with it. I think Brandon grew with me and Tony (Scheffler) and all those guys and now we’re going to jam it into a six-month period and make it happen.”
Cutler added he was almost certain Wiegmann, who had said after the season he would consider retirement, would return to the Broncos for the ’09 season.
“Casey’s coming back,” Cutler said. “I’m 95 percent certain. He wants to play, he loves it, he enjoys Denver, he enjoys playing with us. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting him to play. I’ve talked to Casey numerous times this offseason. I was excited to see him go to the Pro Bowl.”
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/30/broncos-cutler-wants-to-go-to-super-bowl-just/?partner=RSS