It is incredibly easy single out Jay Cutler in game like Sunday’s debacle in Buffalo. Against the mighty Patriots we got teased, 65.8 completion percentage, 3 TDs, no intercepts, 112 QB rating, Jay has finally found it! YAY!!!
No so fast Miami fans. The moment you peak over the mediocrity that defines Jay Cutler, he snaps you back to reality faster than Cameron Wake blowing by a right tackle. 57.1 completion percentage, 0 TDs, 3 intercepts, 47.5 QB rating, Jay stinks again and against Buffalo, it was one rotten egg…
This guy played in Denver and Chicago, how did he become a South Floridian in 4 months? The cold in Buffalo did not look like the frozen tundra Rich Stadium is known for, but Jay couldn’t even feel his own fingers. They make gloves for that Jay! Every snap was an adventure, dropped and kicked around like Bozo the Clown. Jay’s feet were mired in big orange cleats, and he booted everything that came near him. Four dropped snaps...
“I don’t want it, here you take it!”
You’re the quarterback Jay!
We’re supposed to follow the leader, Jay - You!
Let’s just face it, whatever Adam Gase thought he might get out of Jay Cutler was wrong. Wrong Adam, sorry, the whisper doesn’t work! I’ve been good, it’s fourteen games in and I’ve refrained from blasting Cutler, but this game was pathetic. How can he even look his own teammates in the eye?
Buffalo was okay… It seemed like even a mediocre performance might have won that game. Aside from the defense making Tyrod Taylor look like Tom Brady, after making Tom Brady look like Tyrod Taylor... Miami was still in the game.
There’s always discussion about football being a team sport, Jay Cutler does not play defense, yadda, yadda… Obviously there’s something very special about leadership on the field. Against the Patriots, Terrible Smoking Jay was nonexistent, he was confident, accurate and the team jumped on his back and they all played their highlight game of the season.
Fast forward one week and watch the exact opposite, Jay is fumbling around, can’t catch the snap, can’t throw accurately and what happens? The entire team follows the leader…
Okay, it’s a team game, I get it, but doesn’t this show how the leader of the team defines the character. Even on a game by game basis. This Miami season has been the picture of inconsistency. Every game, no one knows which team is going to show up and it comes right back to that leadership position on the field.
The team is pretty much what the QB is. When Jay is really good, Miami is really good. When Jay is mediocre, Miami is mediocre. When Jay is bad, Miami bad. Now when I go back and think about it, it’s same kind of maddening performances we got with Ryan Tannehill just not so pronounced.
Tannehill is a little steadier than Cutler, but he’s still not that consistent rock. Tannehill comes to work every day and we know what to expect out of him, but during the game it’s still a hit or miss proposition.
It’s usually difficult to define such a complex set of human interactions on the play at one position, but not with Cutler. Tannehill is a little harder to capture into a single box, but to say the team goes as the QB goes is actually quite accurate.
Smoking Jay makes the case study easy because he can be so very good one week and so drastically bad the next. There is no team or coach that can survive this kind of inconsistency. Adam Gase will not survive another season if he does not wave bye-bye to Jay Cutler once this miserable thing is over.
Seeing this play out in such prolific fashion of up and down, good and bad, makes it very clear that the QB position is the deciding factor in good, mediocre or bad over the course of a season.
In the case of Ryan Tannehill, it’s mediocre, sorry folks, that’s what it is… In the case of Cutler, it’s bad. The end result make look exactly the same in the win/loss column, but it’s so much worse. A good coach keeps the team 8 & 8, but without a great QB this is it... That's all folks!
When fans like some of those on Dolphinshout, won’t even speak Dolphin football for days on end. It is bad Miami, it’s bad, because these are the true fans.
Those folks filling the stadium these days, some of them are truly die-hard, but many are just being entertained. There’s no real passion coming from them, it’s a social event and social events like social media are very fickle. It’s instant gratification and when you stop providing it, you’re gone...
So listen to this one die-hard who continues to write even when you’ve already lost a lot of true fans, get Jay Cutler the hell out of here ASAP!
Get Cutler out of here, ASAP!
Do not think for one minute a lot changes with Ryan Tannehill. Look at the records, yes Tannehill’s 8 & 8 is easier to take than maddening Jay’s, but it’s still 8 & 8.
If this little case study experiment you did with Jay Cutler has taught you anything, it’s that the team follows the QB more than the coach.
Adam, listen here please, the team follows the QB…
If he’s good they’ll be good, not matter who they are. If he’s mediocre, they’ll be mediocre. If he’s bad, they’re going to be bad. I know you want to think you have a lot more to do with good and bad, but you don’t because you are not out there once the whistle blows.
Adam Gase, once the whistle blows your team is only as good as the guy they are following and it’s the QB. Great coaches are made by great QBs and if you prefer to think about it the other way around that’s fine, but the point is…
If Adam Gase wants to be a great coach, he’s better go find a great quarterback.
Jay Cutler, not so much…
Ryan Tannehill, average…
You’re better than an average coach...
Please go find a great QB and make Miami great again!
