Why Won't Denver Love Jay Cutler?

All Jay Cutler wants is a little respect from the Denver Broncos and their new coach Josh McDaniels. Unfortunately, Cutler plays in the NFL where guarantees, assurances and warm hugs don't come easy.

Cutler is still peeved that McDaniels considered trading him this offseason and then maybe wasn't completely up front about it. The head coach and his quarterback have barely spoken in the last month and a conference call that was supposed to patch things up between everybody yesterday, may have made everything much worse. (And conference calls are usually so productive!) The always popular "sources" say that team officials tried to blame the trade dispute on Cutler, while McDaniels would neither confirm nor deny his trade discussions with other teams, so now Cutler may not show up for offseason workouts, which would be his way of forcing a trade.

So let's get this straight. Cutler was happy in Denver, until the team thought about trading him; but since they thought about trading him, his response might be to get himself traded. He doesn't want to be there anymore, but he thinks the team should make him happy anyway by promising not to trade him, even though he already knows that they want to trade him and would do it if they could. Actually, they probably could have traded him already, but didn't, so maybe that's their way of saying they don't really want to trade him?

Are the Broncos being fair to Cutler? Probably not. But is it fair for a quarterback with a 17-20 lifetime record to expect be untouchable? Does Cutler realize that the alternative is playing for the Detroit Lions? You don't ever want to be on one of their conference calls.

Key for Broncos: Get Cutler to show up Monday [ESPN] Broncos' talk with Cutler sours [Denver Post] Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels have been talking — and that's not good news [West Word] Who's better, Cutler or Cassel? [Upon Further Review] Could Lions' draft-day deal be in the works for Jay Cutler? [MLive]