Denver head coach Josh McDaniels said today Denver is not resigned to giving up Jay Cutler yet.
"He's our quarterback. Period,'' McDaniels said. "We want him to be our quarterback, we made that very clear to him and we hope he feels the same way. He's under contract ... and we've made it clear that we want him to be back here (in Denver) and lead our football team.''
Asked if he plans to meet again with Cutler, McDaniels he hopes to do that "in the near future.''
"Jay and I will have an opportunity to talk more as we go here,'' he said. "We have a relationship, nobody knows where it stands right now, but it's going to get better. It will continue to get better. I believe that.''
Asked if he believes his relationship with Cutler is not irreparable, McDaniels said, "I absolutely feel that it is not irreparable. I think the big thing is that we need to continue to communicate and I'd love to have the opportunity to continue to meet with Cutler face-to-face. I think that's the best type of communication at this point to try to work toward a resolution.''
Given how assertive the Jets are once they target a player, they have to be considered contenders for Cutler. However, this is going to be more difficult than was trading for Brett Favre last August. This shows the first obstacle. While Green Bay was desperate to get rid of Favre, who only was good for two more years at the most, because of the distraction he was causing, Denver has no reason to trade a 25 year old with no replacement on hand. Also factor the competition. Few other teams were willing to roll the dice on a one year rental with Favre. Because of their location in the opposite conference, the Packers really wanted to deal with the Jets. Cutler will be desired by a number of teams, and Denver will only use this as leverage to get the best deal possible even if the club does decide to deal its quarterback.