The NFL is filled with scenarios where one domino falls and changes the entire landscape of the league. One player’s failure or departure ends up being another player’s future. The players are the interchangeable cogs in the NFL stopwatch. Simplified, the NFL is a meat-market game of chance.
In the game of million-dollar players and billion-dollar businesses, no one player might have had as much impact on the NFL in recent years as Jay Cutler. He was the first in maybe the craziest game of connect the dots ever.
Cutler was asked Wednesday: “How do you look back on your three seasons in Denver?”
He responded: “I don’t right now.”
Cutler, as the Broncos’ quarterback, was once viewed as the next guy to be “The Guy.” A gun-slinger from Vanderbilt, Cutler could do just about anything with his right arm. He was big, strong and willing to rip it. The Broncos drafted Cutler to fill an empty hole. A hole much like the one this Broncos roster has today. He was a strong-armed quarterback who could be a consistent winner for years to come. He could be the face of the franchise, stable and strong — like Elway before, and Peyton after.
Cutler didn’t want out of Denver, his plan was to be a Bronco for most of his career. Josh McDaniels had other plans. McDaniels, a “wiz kid” of sorts from New England, had it out for the young Cutler and eventually had him shipped to Chicago. This is where the dominos start to fall, and all because one coach wasn’t satisfied with one player.
This gets complicated, so try to keep up….
The Broncos traded Jay Cutler and a fifth-round pick to the Bears for Kyle Orton, two first round selections (2009 and ’10) and a third-round selection in 2009. The fifth round pick, which was traded to Chicago, was originally a pick obtained by the Broncos in a trade with Seattle in a previous trade for wide receiver Keary Colbert.
The 2009 first-round selection was used on Robert Ayers, the defensive end from Tennessee. Ayers was unimpressive with the Broncos, recording no sacks until his second year. The Broncos tried Ayers at linebacker, but eventually moved him to defensive end. Ayers is still in the league, and now plays alongside Gerald McCoy for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Broncos later used that acquired third-round pick to swap with the Pittsburgh Steelers and select Richard Quinn, a Tar Heel tight end.
The Steelers, in turn, used the pick that Denver received from Chicago to select a wide receiver out of Ole Miss by the name of Mike Wallace.
In the following year, the Denver Broncos would trade their first round pick to San Francisco for pick Nos. 13 and 113 (remember this pick, its important later).
The 49ers with pick 11 (via Denver and Chicago) selected offensive tackle Anthony Davis.
Denver had an additional first round pick in 2010, but traded it away to Seattle, which the Seahawks in turn used to select a pretty good player (who would come back to haunt them in Super Bowl XLVIII), strong safety Earl Thomas.
Denver would then trade their picks again. Pick No. 13 went to Philadelphia, who moved up to select defensive end Brandon Graham.
Denver then made another move to slide back into pick No. 22 (acquired from the Patriots). Their selection was Demaryius Thomas.
Denver Broncos traded back into the first round (via Baltimore) and selected a quarterback out of Florida. You may have heard his name as recently as this year being thrown out (foolishly) as an option to fix Denver’s (and others’) quarterback conundrum. Tim Tebow.
Dallas picked up from the Patriots what was the Broncos’ draft pick originally acquired from Philadelphia to get Dez Bryant.
After the first-round smoke cleared and the trades were finalized, the Patriots selected cornerback Devin McCourty.
The Patriots in that same draft selected Rob Gronkowski (pick No. 42 from Chicago via Tampa Bay and Oakland), and, using a pick they received from the Denver Broncos (that aforementioned pick No. 113) as part of the San Francisco deal, selected a very different kind of player from Florida, Aaron Hernandez.
So, without Jay Cutler being traded for Kyle Orton:
Dallas might not have landed Dez Bryant.
Pittsburgh could have lost out on Mike Wallace.
Seattle’s Legion of Boom with Earl Thomas may never have materialized.
The Patriots may not have selected Devin McCourty or Aaron Hernandez.
Tim Tebow and Demaryius Thomas might never have worn orange and blue or hooked up to beat the Steelers in the playoffs, only to be destroyed by the Patriots the following week. In turn, the Denver Broncos ultimately may never have tried to acquire free agent quarterback Peyton Manning.
So while some of us might not want to, and we would never dare say it out loud, we should all be thanking Jay Cutler, and dare I say it, give an even bigger thank you to Josh McDaniels.
That’s how the dominoes fall in the NFL.
