Jay Cutler Released
The Jay Cutler era in Chicago is officially over. The team released their starting QB of the past 7 seasons yesterday in the first day of free agency. The Bears are clearly in a rebuild mode, also letting star wide receiver Alshon Jeffery walk, signing a 1 year deal in Philadelphia for $14 million. The Bears brought in Mike Glennon as their starting QB for the moment, but they will most probably draft someone with the hopes of him becoming their new franchise QB. According to walterfootball.com's QB rankings for the upcoming NFL draft, the top 5 available are Mitch Trubisky (UNC), DeShone Kizer (Notre Dame), Pat Mahomes (Texas Tech), Deshaun Watson (Clemson) and Davis Webb (Cal).
What does this mean for Jay Cutler though? There have been never-ending debates about Cutler's effectiveness on the field, and in my experience there is a real split on opinions. Half of fans think he is a great QB in bad situations, and the other half thinks he is not a good QB at all. Either way, he won't be a free agent for long, as teams like the Jets, Texans and the Browns are in desperate need of a starting QB, and Jay Cutler is not that old yet. The Browns just traded for Brock Osweiler, but most signs point to the team either trading him away or dropping him altogether. Despite all of that, Osweiler is not a solution, so even if he stays, the Browns still need a QB.
The Jets seem to be the likely destination, but with losing Brandon Marshall, they only have Eric Decker as their #1 WR, and he has proven that he isn't capable of being a #1 but he is a solid #2, so they would need to bring in a WR via draft or free agency as well. Even if they did bring him in, the Jets defense is also very bad, so he probably wouldn't be affecting the number of wins right away.
The Texans just traded Brock Osweiler away to open up both cap space and the starting QB position so they can make a move on Tony Romo. That being said, if Tony Romo ends up somewhere else, like Denver, the Texans wouldn't be in a terrible situation by bringing in Jay Cutler, considering he can throw further than most QBs, and they've got Deandre Hopkins who can break the lid off of almost any defense.
The Denver Broncos are also in need of a starting QB, even though they have Trevor Siemian. He showed signs of what he could do, but ultimately was not effective enough to help the Broncos make the playoffs in the stacked AFC West, even with their championship caliber defense. Jay Cutler, while not a huge improvement, would be an immediate improvement on Siemian, and would give the Broncos a better chance at another Super Bowl before their time is over.
