Originally Posted by
Tned
I don't think the "If you are trying to trade me, just go ahead and do it now" or whatever that quote was and "I never wanted it to come to this" are mutually exclusive.
I find out my wife is cheating, and I might say, "that's it, we're getting a divorce", but I would also be 100% correct and honest to say, "I never wanted it to come to this", but my wife's actions put me in a place where I thought I had not choice (this is a hypothetical, as my wife hasn't cheated on me and I'm not divorced).
McDaniels admits that he was approached at the combine and had not thought of trading Jay/trading for Cassel BEFORE that point, which was also clearly before the phone call that some claim he listned to and said "no", which McDaniels himself never says.
If you piece together what he has said on the record, he was approached at the combine by a couple teams about trading for Jay and getting Cassel (or something like that), and hadn't started considering that until that point. Then, he got the call about a trade for Jay, that would allow him to trade for Cassel (a three way trade, or two seperate straight trades with NE and one other club), but said he was "late to the game", implying not that he said "no", but that it was too late to make the move (which also doesn't imply that he would have pulled the trigger).
Then, when it all blows up, the team refuses to make a statement for days, possibly longer, and then a team spokesman says something like "Jay Cutler is our quarterback" or something inane llike that, and then a day or two later, McDaniels says the exact same short, prepared sentence.
Then, a couple weeks later or sometime down the road, when doing an interview (I think on ESPN), he says something like "Jay's our QB, we aren't trying to trade him, but anyone on the team can be traded if it improves our team". Again, going by memory, and that won't be exact, but it's the gist of it.
The point being, McDaniels himself admitted he didn't just take a call and say no, that he had been considering the possibility before the phone call, and then when that call came, was too late to make a trade.
That's all fine, although if you are going to have discussions about trading your QB hit the press, you really need to actually trade him, not be "late to the game" and have a pissed off starting QB.
However, what was really the problem was the game that McDaniels and the Broncos PR department did, where they tried to first say nothing, then parse words, then say he's not on the block, but we will trade anyone if we think we should. Every coach, every team will trade anyone if they think it will improve the team, so why state the obvious, when it will only further inflame the situation.
There are several other statements made during the time frame, but I don't have the time to look them up.