1990Coupe *OFFICIAL* 2008 NFL thread

By Jim Corbett said:

Jay Cutler is playing in rarefied air all right. And it's not just when the third-year Denver Broncos quarterback plays a home game at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High, just as he did in igniting the Broncos to a 34-32 win against the New Orleans Saints in Week 3.

Cutler has not only emerged as the class of the 2006 quarterback class that includes the Tennessee Titans' Vince Young and the Arizona Cardinals' Matt Leinart (both selected before Cutler), but he is a front-runner in early-season MVP conversations.

Cutler's lightning-strike right arm is the biggest reason why the Broncos are 3-0 for the first time since 2003.

He has validated coach Mike Shanahan's decision to throw the Vanderbilt product into the fire of a late-season playoff run by starting the Broncos' final five games his rookie season.

Now look at Cutler. He's on fire.

Cutler has thrown eight touchdown passes with two interceptions for 914 yards and is completing 67.6% of his passes. Most impressive, Shanahan hasn't trusted a quarterback to throw as much as Cutler since John Elway was at the top of his Hall of Fame game.

"Jay Cutler is playing quarterback better than anyone in the NFL right now," CBS analyst Bill Cowher says. "He's in total command of that offense, looking so poised the way he's going through his first, second, third and fourth reads."

Cutler is triggering a high-flying offense averaging a league-best 38 points along with 432 total yards and 301.7 passing yards, ranking second in both categories.

"Jay Cutler's playing terrific," ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski says. "What I saw in Jay coming out of Vanderbilt was the ability to throw the football. And that's where it starts.

"In today's game, your quarterback has to be able to make every throw. There's a lot of guys with average arms, and you can get by with those guys — guys in the horizontal and short passing game can be successful. But the great quarterbacks get the ball down the field. In third-and-long situations with teams playing five, six and sometimes seven, eight defensive backs, you've got to be able to make tight throws.

"Some of those throws he made in that (Week 2, 39-38) win against San Diego, there's only one guy who can make them: Jay Cutler. … He was just flicking his wrist, throwing lasers."

Granted, Cutler received a controversial second chance against the Chargers thanks to referee Ed Hochuli's botched call. Hochuli apologized after blowing the whistle on what he thought to be a Cutler incompletion when the ball slipped from the quarterback's right hand; it should have been ruled a fumble that San Diego recovered, cementing a win. But the play was unreviewable under the rules.

So Cutler reloaded on his gift opportunity and rifled a 4-yard touchdown pass to rookie Eddie Royal with 24 seconds left. Then he gunned the winning two-point conversion pass to Royal between two Chargers defensive backs.

A week later, Cutler proved it wasn't a fluke by throwing for 264 yards and two more touchdowns, including a 35-yard scoring strike to Brandon Marshall in the shootout win against Drew Brees and the similarly high-octane Saints.

"Jay's starting to get it now from a cerebral standpoint, as well," Jaworski says. "Mike Shanahan is a beautiful designer of offense. And he's got the guy to design his offense around. He can attack the entire field with Jay Cutler."

Cutler's dynamic passing is the reason the usually run-heavy Shanahan is calling more passes to an arsenal of wideouts, including budding third-year player Marshall, emerging Royal, Brandon Stokley and tight ends Tony Scheffler and Daniel Graham. Shanahan has dialed up 108 passes, compared to 82 run plays. But expect the pendulum to swing back as Shanahan tries more ball control to cover for a 28th-ranked defense.

"The difference in Jay from our first year to this year is his presence in the pocket," Marshall says. "The guy's doing amazing things, as far as how he controls the safeties with his shoulders and his eyes, and being able to read coverages.

"Sometimes you get guys who can make big plays, run fast and throw hard.

"But very seldom do you get a package of a guy who can do all that and can read coverages and tell everyone what they've got on every single play. He's a special guy. And he's our guy forever."

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