Peppers and the Bears had Vick running for his life.


-- Mike Vick had, by far, his worst game of the season. Overall, he seemed very rattled and indecisive. He threw his first interception of the season and fumbled four times, but didn't lose any. The play-calling certainly didn't help, but Vick must be better moving forward. That said, his worst game was still actually pretty decent.

-- Once again, LeSean McCoy went under-utilized. He had only 10 carries, but still averaged 5.3 yards per carry. He also chipped in with eight catches for 67 yards. It's just mind-boggling why a play-maker like McCoy is not used more often.

-- We have a Brent Celek sighting. For once, his lack of production (for most of the game) wasn't his fault. Had Vick hit him when he was open, Celek would have ended the day with three touchdowns and well over 100 yards.

-- Owen Schmitt seemed to be used a whole lot less than usual. He lined up at fullback and at tight end a little bit, but did nothing of note other than his usual solid blocking performance.

-- Jeremy Maclin had only four catches for 47 yards, but hauled in his eighth touchdown of the season and, to this point, has been the team's best receiver. He still does everything he can to avoid contact, but not if it means sacrificing a catch. Which, of course is more than I can say for some receivers on the team.

-- I won't keep you in suspense for very long. The receiver who will sacrifice a catch to avoid contact is DeSean Jackson. I don't care about the concussions. Short-arming on that pass in the endzone to avoid getting hit was inexcusable. If you're afraid to get hit, then get off the field and let someone play who isn't afraid of his own shadow.

-- Jason Avant rebounded strongly after a terrible drop against the Giants. Avant pulled in eight receptions for 83 yards including a few important first downs to keep drives alive. Avant hasn't been able to find the endzone a lot this season, but he's been instrumental in moving the ball in the middle of the field.

-- Overall, the offensive line did a decent job with the Bears. Most of the sacks on Vick were a result of him holding the ball far too long, but they were poor blocking for McCoy. Any yardage McCoy gained was by waiting for a seam to open up and dancing through it. Nick Cole and Todd Herremans were especially bad.

-- Clay Harbor was the second tight end for the third straight week, and was more productive than DeSean Jackson, hauling in two catches for 27 yards. Harbor lined up outside as a receiver and as a tight end, and figures to get more of a look over the last five weeks.

-- Riley Cooper had a big catch for 29 yards, but that was it. He hasn't been getting a ton of targets, but given the Eagles' red zone struggles over the past two weeks that could change.

-- Jerome Harrison was given one carry. Just one. Apparently a 100-yard game doesn't warrant some more touches.

-- The play-calling, once again, was atrocious. Who in the hell thinks it's a good idea to call play-action time after time after time when you have yet to establish the run? The Bears didn't fall for it, and all it did was open up Vick to getting hit and cut down the time he had to make reads. Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg are the worst play-calling duo in the league.

-- Trent Cole finished with two sacks on Jay Cutler, but he could and should have had at least two more. Cole has at least one sack against every non-NFC East team the Birds have played this season.

-- This is a different defense with Antonio Dixon in the lineup. Offensive linemen just can't block him one-on-one and he's able to make up for the fact that the defense lacks a true middle linebacker.

-- Mike Patterson pitched in with a sack, but he was given a clear path to Cutler on a busted screen. Patterson must generate more of a pass-rush on first and second down from the inside and do a better job of getting off blockers.

-- Brodrick Bunkley had another quiet game. He seems to lack the power to shed blockers since suffering the elbow injury, but is still hard to move off the line. The problem is that until he can get in the backfield and disrupt opposing offenses like Dixon does, he's going to remain the third guy in a rotation.

-- Brandon Graham, starting in place of Juqua Parker, racked up his third sack of the season. He is still not good enough against the run, however. He allows tackles to get into his body and push him off the ball, which interferes with the way the linebackers flow to the ball.

-- Trevor Laws, Darryl Tapp, and Daniel Te'o-Nesheim were mostly useless. Laws got a pass-rush a couple times, but that's it. At least he has been a pretty decent backup all year, but Tapp and Te'o-Nesheim continue to be useless.

-- Has Stewart Bradley had a good game all year? He missed a tackle that sprang Matt Forte's first long run, and would go on to miss more and more as the game went on. He still gets caught in the wash, still can't disengage a blocker, and doesn't seem to have the fire or leadership a MIKE linebacker should have.

-- Ernie Sims has essentially all the same problems Bradley has. But, at 6'0, 230 pounds, at least he has an excuse to get caught in a crowd. On top of that, however, he doesn't seem to understand angles and is not the big-play guy the Eagles thought they were getting.

-- Moise Fokou, like Akeem Jordan before him, is the best linebacker on the field. He will actually step up and take on blockers rather than playing patty-cake like Sims and Bradley. He didn't have a great game today as the Bears were able to attack the outsides pretty effectively, but he has yet to be outdone by Sims or Bradley.

-- Joselio Hanson said he played his worst game since entering the NFL. I'm inclined to agree. It was clear all night that he was very frustrated and it hurt his game even worse. I've said this before and I'll say it again: he does not belong on the outside. Ever. He's a nickel corner and that's it. I would have preferred to see Trevard Lindley start on the outside.

-- Speaking of Lindley, he looked like a rookie. It's not surprising considering he is a rookie, but his inexperience really killed the Eagles defense. He was slow reacting when the Bears tried crossing him up and allowed some easy receptions right in front of his face. He has shown flashes and could be a contributor in the future, but he showed he's not ready quite yet.

-- Dimitri Patterson was the bright spot of the secondary. He didn't have a great game, but he was certainly the best one out there. Had he jumped a half-second later or been an inch taller, he would have had at least one interception instead of giving Greg Olsen a touchdown reception.

-- Nate Allen and Quintin Mikell took awful angles and missed tackles all game long. Allen was late reacting near the goal-line once Hanson released his man to the inside, and Mikell just plain got beat by Earl Bennett. Allen has been less than impressive since returning from injury, and Mikell seems to be getting progressively worse as the season goes on.

-- Sean McDermott proved once again that he has no ability to adjust on the fly. If his gameplan works from the outset of the game, he can do just fine and his defense plays well. But if the defense and his gameplan gets exploited early, he's unable to fix it and immediately loses all control of the game.

-- The coverage units reverted to their old ways. After a few weeks of playing very well, Bobby April's unit laid an egg against Devin Hester and Daniel Manning. Special teams will continue to underperform every year until Reid takes it seriously and keeps guys like Tracy White and Kelley Washington on the team.

-- Jackson's fear of contact has affected his return game too. He had a good 35-yard punt return, but was pushed out by the punter. If he wasn't so afraid of being hit, he could have easily cut that return back inside and taken it all the way. Another return saw him dance around and fall to the ground. Jorrick Calvin was good returning kicks, but unfortunately received no blocking.

-- The loss was a team effort, but can be traced back to terrible play-calling on offense and a depleted defense that got no help from a poor gameplan and a coordinator who doesn't know what he's doing well enough to adjust. Had the coaches been better, this is a game the team could have won even with their poor play.
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If Parker sits Sunday, Graham would be the starter.


The Chicago Bears' offense has been incredibly disappointing all season long. The team is winning, but Mike Martz's presence has not produced the type of fire-power everyone was expecting with Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, Johnny Knox, and Devin Hester.

The biggest problem has been the offensive line. They're not an overly-impressive group to begin with, and Martz has never been known for his great blocking schemes. This has left Cutler open to hits and sacks.

Overall, the Bears are 30th in the league in quarterback hits allowed (64) and are dead last in sacks allowed with Cutler going down 37 times already.

Those numbers are the only thing that give me hope the Eagles can improve to 8-3 this Sunday.

Asante Samuel and Juqua Parker have not practiced all week long. Then in Thursday's practice, starting defensive tackle Antonio Dixon was forced to leave practice and took only mental reps on Friday.

Usually players missing practice on Friday means they're not going to play. All three guys have been listed as questionable (which means a 50-50 chance of playing), but head coach Andy Reid has said missing practice Friday does not necessarily mean they won't play.

Reid said during his Friday press conference that because Samuel and Parker are veteran guys the mental reps don't mean as much for them. They're veteran guys, so if they get to a point where they feel like they can play -- even as late as Sunday afternoon -- he would have no problem playing them.

As for Dixon, he only missed part of Thursday and did at least watch practice on Friday. Because of that, it's possible that Dixon could dress.

All three, according to Reid, are scheduled to make the trip to Chicago.

But even though they're all listed as questionable, the feeling is that Parker is probably more doubtful. No one seems to think he's going to play. In his place, rookie Brandon Graham becomes the starter once again.

Graham hasn't been overly impressive in his rookie season, but he has made some plays to show that he is coming along. Perhaps against a bad offensive line he can get his season on track and gain some momentum heading into the home stretch.

Samuel is a bit of an unknown. He says he wants to play and that he's going to give it a shot, but the feeling is that no one would be too surprised if he starts or if he's scratched.

But if I'm Sean McDermott, I'm praying to any god I can that Samuel plays. Without Samuel, Joselio Hanson and Dimitri Patterson become the starters. Hanson has played well as the nickel corner, but he's just too small to play on the outside. The Bears don't have great receivers, but they're probably good enough to give Hanson fits.

That would also mean that rookie Trevard Lindley -- who has been a healthy scratch more often than not -- would see a lot of playing time in the nickel. And for those who don't pay close enough attention, the Eagles probably run the nickel more than 50 percent of the time.

Jorrick Calvin and Brandon Hughes would be next in line should the Eagles play in a dime package, but it's likely the team would call on third safety Kurt Coleman before they resort to either of those guys.

If Dixon can't go, (and, like Samuel, no one is quite sure if he can or not) Brodrick Bunkley would step in and become the starter once again. Bunkley has seen a lot of time in a rotation and has been the starter for a few years now, so there's not too much cause for concern there.

That would just leave Bunkley and Mike Patterson as the starters with Trevor Laws rotating in on passing situations or to give either guy a break.

With Parker and Dixon out, it's also possible that third-round pick Daniel Te'o-Nesheim could be active for only the third time this season and the first time since facing Tennessee in Week 7.

The replacements should be good enough to slow down an already-weak offense. The problem is that the Bears' defense has shown they're more than capable of slowing down a good offense, so Chicago's offense might not need to do a whole lot of scoring to pull out a win.

For an UPDATE on this story, click here.

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McNabb talks to Cutler after an Eagles win Sunday.


After last night's game against the Chicago Bears, in which Donovan McNabb willed his team to a victory, McNabb and Jay Cutler met in the middle of the field and spoke for about three minutes.

Well, actually, McNabb talked and Cutler just listened.

The mics were able to pick up a little of what McNabb was saying at the end, but it seemed as though the gist of the conversation was McNabb giving Cutler some invaluable advice on how to deal with a city on your back and the media down your throat.

Let's be honest, if anyone knows how to deal with a situation like that, it's McNabb.

And now we see why McNabb knows how to deal with the situation that Cutler is in. After his talk with Cutler, McNabb is drawing scrutiny from some members of the Philadelphia media. Apparently the talk was "over the top" and should have happened behind closed doors.

To me, this is lunacy. McNabb was simply giving a young quarterback some good advice and showing what a class act he really is, and yet the media still finds a reason to find fault in something he did.

Instead of talking about how he led the Eagles' offense down the field for the game-winning touchdown by making the keys throws they needed to be made and avoiding the pressure when it was there, we're left to read about how he shouldn't have talked to Cutler for so long.

It seems like no matter what he does, the media will never give McNabb the credit he deserves for what he has done for this team and this city. Even if he were to never win a Super Bowl here in Philly, he, along with Reid, have brought respectability back to a franchise that had none for a good portion of the post-Dick Vermeil era.

Yes, Randall Cunningham did a lot in opening the door for McNabb to be successful, but like McNabb, Cunningham will never get the respect he deserves as "The Ultimate Weapon," even though he's held in a much higher regard than McNabb.

And even "The Ultimate Weapon" didn't have the success that McNabb has had.

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I was recently discussing this very same issue on Voice America's "G. Cobb in the House" with Micah Warren as G. Cobb was unavailable for the show.

Listen Here.

On the show, Micah and I went around the NFL debating and discussing how McNabb matched up against every starting quarterback in the league. What we found was that he's still an elite quarterback, but where does he fall?

If you would like to hear a debate for every quarterback, the audio is provided. Instead, I will pick out five quarterbacks that I believe someone may be able to make an argument for as a better quarterback than McNabb, and some who will always have an argument on their behalf, even an undeserved one.

*(GS, W/L, Comp/Att Completion Percentage, Passing Yards, TD, INT, QB Rating)*

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Peyton Manning: 176 GS, 117-59, 3,839-5,960 64.4%, 45,628, 333 TD, 165 INT, 94.7

Matching up against Manning, McNabb loses significantly in every major category except interceptions. Before you assume that Peyton wins that stat anyway because of the touchdown difference, take into consideration a different stat: INT percentage. Looking at that, McNabb's is 2.1 while Manning's is 2.8.

A small victory for McNabb and not a huge loss for Manning considering that McNabb holds the NFL record for his INT percentage, which until this past year, was under two.

Arguing in McNabb's favor, the obvious counter to all the inflated stats for Manning is the fact that he's always had more talent around him than McNabb, or any other quarterback for that matter.

Marvin Harrison is Hall of Fame bound, Reggie Wayne is one of the best playing right now, Brandon Stokley and Anthony Gonzalez had/have been fantastic slot receivers and Dallas Clark is one of the better tight ends in the league.

Aside from McNabb's one season with T.O., he has never had a real No. 1 receiving threat. Even with all of that, Manning has been the more consistent of the two quarterbacks, he has the better numbers, and perhaps more importantly, he's got the ring.

Another question I ask myself is (removing age as a factor), "Would I trade McNabb for this quarterback?"

I love McNabb as a quarterback, but...

Advantage: Manning

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Philip Rivers: 48 GS, 33-15, 890-1,428 62.3%, 10,697, 78 TD, 36 INT, 92.9

Philip Rivers will win a Super Bowl for the Chargers before his time in San Diego is over, he's that good. He was always looked at as a spoiled kid playing quarterback because of his verbal altercations with fans and players alike, but ever since he played in the postseason with his ACL torn, he has earned respect from everyone in the league.

The man cares about one thing, and that's winning.

But we all know that Rivers is a good quarterback, the question is, "Is he better than Donovan McNabb?" The answer? Well, I just can't bring myself to say that he's better than McNabb. I know it's hard to guess how well a quarterback will play, but up to date he has done less than McNabb but with more talent.

Rivers has had a lot of talent around him in L.T., Antonio Gates, Chris Chambers, Vincent Jackson, and Darren Sproles just to name a few. Even with that talent, he has yet to get the Chargers to a Super Bowl.

It took McNabb six years, and Rivers is heading into his sixth season, so we'll see.

But as it stands, McNabb is the better quarterback.

Advantage: McNabb

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Drew Brees: 106 GS, 55-51, 2,334-3,650 64%, 26,258, 168 TD, 99 INT, 89.4

For me, this is extremely close. Drew Brees is a very talented quarterback, there's no doubt about that. This is a guy who I could not fight against for very long in talking McNabb vs. Brees because there is such a good argument that could be made.

Brees may have had the luxury of better receivers during his time in the NFL, whether it be with the Chargers or the Saints, but the receivers he had were not that much better overall than what McNabb has had to work with.

An argument could be made that Marques Colston is a No. 1 receiver and that Lance Moore is highly underrated, but to me it appears as though Brees makes them look better than they are, rather than the other way around.

He has pinpoint accuracy and a very good arm, also the ability to lead a team. However Brees has not found a way to win. He's barely over .500 for his career and has only been as far as one NFC Championship game with the Saints in his first year.

Given Brees' pedestrian numbers as far as the win-loss part of it goes, I believe McNabb has to get the nod because of what he has been able to do and what he has been able to achieve in his career.

Quite simply, he's done more than Brees.

Advantage: McNabb

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Tom Brady: 111 GS, 87-24, 2,301-3,653 63%, 26,446, 197 TD, 86 INT, 92.9

Not even the homerism that I try so hard to fight will allow me to put McNabb over Brady in this case. Brady and McNabb have really been in the same boat for their entire careers as far as the talent surrounding them.

Brady, outside of his one year with Moss, has never had a real No. 1 receiver, but I will say that he has just a bit more than what McNabb has had. For instance, who wouldn't take Troy Brown and David Patten over James Thrash and Todd Pinkston?

Even with the lack of talent surrounding him for most of his career, Brady has found a way to win. Three Super Bowl rings tells the tale as opposed to McNabb's zero. The other X-factor may be the coaching that Brady has had in New England.

Andy Reid is a great coach, the best in franchise history and one of the best in NFL history. If he wins a Super Bowl, he'll be compared to John Madden. Unfortunately, it's always appeared that the McNabb-Reid duo has always been one half-notch behind the Brady-Belichik duo.

I guess that's all it takes.

Advantage: Brady

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Jay Cutler: 37 GS, 17-20, 762-1,220 62.5%, 9,024, 54 TD, 37 INT, 87.1

This may not be fair considering Cutler's short time in the NFL. But even during his short time he has shown that he has the arm and the leadership to make a difference for his team.

This comparison is looking more at potential than anything else, but I believe it's a valid one because it would look like Cutler is about to unleash that potential all over the NFC North and the entire NFL.

No, Cutler has not accomplished what McNabb has accomplished, but give him time. He is a top-five quarterback in this league and will be for at least the next eight-ten years or so.

Advantage: McNabb

These next few quarterbacks are guys who will sometimes be compared to McNabb, or placed above McNabb. Honestly, it leaves me dumbfounded when I see it.

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Kurt Warner: 101 GS, 57-44, 2,327-3,557 65.4%, 28,591, 182 TD, 114, 93.8

For all the talk that McNabb is injury prone, Warner is much worse. Since 1998, he has only finished three seasons. In addition, he has seen two seasons of only seven games, and one season of only two games.

Warner also has a very simple key to success: great receivers.

The only times he's been successful is when he has not one, but two great receivers. In St. Louis he had Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce, and now in Arizona he has Larry Fitzgerald, arguably the best receiver in the game, and Anquan Boldin, who isn't too shabby.

In fact, between his years without great receivers, and even during some years where he did have the receivers (2002-2006) he amassed 27 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. That's not one season, that's five.

Yes, Warner has a Super Bowl ring. But who really believes that was all Warner and not the help of an all-around great team?

The numbers speak for themselves. Hall of Fame, top-of-the-line quarterbacks can go through funks and hit ruts. McNabb had a two-game rut this year, it happens. But a five year slump is not a slump at all. It's the mark of a quarterback who can play only when he has a great supporting cast.

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Eli Manning: 71 GS, 42-29, 1,276-2,284 56%, 14,623, 98 TD, 78 INT, 76.1

Even after looking at the numbers, there are some who will yell and scream that Eli even holds a candle to McNabb. The reality is that he is nowhere close. The numbers speak for themselves.

Yes, he has a Super Bowl ring. But, just like Warner, does anyone believe that they would not have won that Super Bowl without Eli? If Eli went down and gave way to David Carr, they would still have won that Super Bowl because of their offensive and defensive lines.

I hear the questions. "Well then, what about his game-winning touchdown pass?" What about it? Plax was wide open. David Carr could have made that throw. I could have made that throw. Your lovely little old grandmother could have made that throw.

Plax did a great job on that play, the offensive and defensive lines were some of the best in the last decade, and that's why they won that Super Bowl. Eli was just another player on that team.

Had they not won that Super Bowl, this would not even be a discussion.

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Tony Romo: 39 GS, 27-12, 831-1,307 63.6%, 10,562, 81 TD, 46 INT, 94.7

In all honesty, Romo may be the most talented quarterback on this list. Yes, even above Warner. Warner is a very good quarterback, but Romo seems to show these flashes of brilliance that would fool people into thinking he's a great quarterback when in reality, he's average at best when the game is on the line.

I'll always remember Brian Dawkins' quote about players who only show flashes of talent, "It just means they're not working hard enough."

I don't know if this is the case with Romo, but he does seem to hyped into the stardom that goes along with being an NFL quarterback, rather than actually enjoying being an NFL quarterback.

Someone get Carrie Underwood on the phone, maybe she's looking to sling some dirt.

One last comparison:

Donovan McNabb: 128 GS, 82-45-1, 2,534-4,303 59%, 29,320, 194 TD, 90 INT, 85.9

vs.

Kevin Kolb: 0 GS, 0-0, 17-34 50%, 144, 0 TD, 4 INT, 21.8

Advantage: Kevin Kolb

Just Kidding, Philly.

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The NFL is full of surprising drama, and offseason storylines really get overblown when there's nothing to talk about.

Now that's not to say that this isn't a story worthy of discussion, but I get the feeling that the discussion is headed in the wrong direction.

Somewhere along the line, Jay Cutler was made out to be the bad guy in this whole saga.

I see articles all over the place from bloggers to high-influence guys on NFL.com saying that Cutler is nothing more than a spoiled child who is upset because his feelings were hurt.

Now, wait just a minute.

Am I the only one who looks at this story and sees that the Broncos have done nothing but lie to Cutler since the season ended?

First, Pat Bowlen decides he's going to fire one of the best coaches in the NFL, and certainly the best in the history of the Denver franchise in Mike Shanahan, and replace him with someone who has never been a head coach and only an offensive coordinator for no more than a few years.

That in itself is bound to make any quarterback uneasy, not to mention a rather outspoken Pro Bowl quarterback.

Then, Bowlen tells Cutler personally that the entire offensive staff will be retained even though Shanahan has been fired.

Well that was just fine with Cutler, who up to that point had said nothing publicly more than the fact that he was upset to see Shanahan go.

90 percent of his players said that, so that's nothing to jump on.

Then, what does Bowlen do?

He fires Jeremy Bates clean out of the blue.

Now, Cutler could have yelled and screamed that he was lied to, but that's not what he did.

Yes, he voiced his displeasure in the decision to let go of Bates as he had a good relationship with him. And why not? Bates was the one who groomed Cutler into a Pro Bowl quarterback and had been with him since day one.

Oh and when asked about why he would tell Cutler that Bates would be retained and then fired anyway Bowlen responds with a very convincing, "I don't recall having that conversation with Jay."

So, Pat, are you calling him a liar or are you just too much of a coward to come out and say, yes I lied to the man's face?

Now look, I understand that the NFL is a business and that Bowlen needs to do what he thinks is good for the Broncos as an organization and --

Oh yeah, wait, it doesn't end there.

After all of that, McDaniels decides that he'd like to throw his hat into the ring of this incredible circus which has already put the tent up and has begun collecting the elephants.

As it turns out (and to no one's surprise), his former quarterback, Matt Cassel, is on the trading block.

Well, who doesn't like familiarity?

So, before Cassel is traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, McDaniels gets involved in trade talks with the Patriots and with the Buccaneers and/or Lions that would create a three-team trade involving trade picks, Matt Cassel, and Jay Cutler.

So the old mantra is back, the NFL is a business.

Fine, I get that. I concede that the NFL is a business. However, what I will not concede to is the notion that these players are merely trading cards that can be moved from person to person or organization to organization or team to team just on a whim.

Players get traded, it happens. However, what you never do as a head coach or as a team is attempt to trade a player without first letting them know.

Especially a quarterback.

Especially a franchise, Pro Bowl quarterback.

The man is a professional and deserves that little bit of professional respect, at the very least.

At this point, I'm still rather indifferent to this whole story. Yes, it sounds like a mistake on McDaniels' part to try and backdoor Cutler by not telling him and being sneaky, but things like this happen.

The part that really gets me fired up is after the trade talks fall through for the Broncos.

Cutler finally finds out that the team who drafted him is now trying to move him for a guy who has only started 15 games in his entire career, and didn't even outperform Cutler in those 15 games.

Who wouldn't be a little upset?

But just when I thought McDaniels couldn't do any worse, he does just that.

Instead of saying to Cutler something along the lines of, we tried to trade for Cassel but it didn't work out. However, that's not a knock against you. It's simply just that I'm familiar with Matt.

While it's still a bad situation, at least he hasn't made it worse.

But instead, McDaniels attempted to be the "big man on campus" so to speak and decided to take the dictator-like anything I say is right mentality.

So instead of simply assuring Cutler that he was the man for that team, he decides to continue to tell him that he still might be traded and that no one is untradeable.

Well I'm here to tell you soon-to-be Ex-coach McDaniels, a franchise Pro Bowl quarterback should be untradeable from his team's standpoint.

The fact that he was so reckless in continuing on with the trade talks (and I know someone is yelling that he didn't initiate the talks. Well, I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned that's a moot point) was bad enough, but instead of going into damage-control mode the man decides to treat Cutler like a child.

That just does not fly in the NFL. He is not a child, he is a grown man and a professional.

Denver has done all that they can to make him look like the bad guy in this by dragging him through the mud in the media and putting themselves on a pedestal.

Pat Bowlen and Josh McDaniels have now destroyed any relationship with Cutler and effectively destroyed the entire team.

McDaniels has damaged his coaching career and may never be able to find success.

That sounds like a leap, but is it really?

Let's say things don't work out for him in Denver (and they won't) and he gets fired after three or four seasons, and another team hires him.

Immediately upon his hire, what do you think that team's quarterback is thinking about?

Am I on the trading block now so that he can have the guy he had before me? Will I even know? Is he going to lie directly to my face about it?

Whether you believe McDaniels or Cutler in all of this, that fact is undisputed and will always linger around McDaniels.

I think he has effectively ended his coaching career, or rather ended any chance of making it successful, and should bare half the blame in this with the other half landing on the desk of Pat Bowlen.

After three or four years of attempting to earn the trust of the locker room (and I believe being unsuccessful) Bowlen will be forced to fire McDaniels while Cutler's career is in its prime elsewhere in the NFL.

I believe Cutler has been lied to by two men who have treated him like he was nothing more than a child.

Denver needs to show some sign of decency and not hold him hostage now simply out of spite.

Trade him, get something in return, and watch him light you up year after year after year after year while McDaniels is forced to gameplan against the man who he couldn't land to replace Cutler.

Such sweet irony.
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