We are going to mention this on the news tonight, though, I thought I would give a quick preview here.
The other day, while surfing the web, I came across an article written by Mike Sando, who covers the NFL for ESPN.com. The topic was rating the potential of quarterbacks under the age of 30 and I will leave the link for the story at the bottom of this entry.
He talked to scouts around the NFL for their analysis and they came up with this conclusion: far and away, Jay Cutler has more upside than anyone.
More upside than Tony Romo, who parlayed his stellar play into the arms of Jessica Simpson.
More upside than David Garrard, the leader of a team NOBODY wants to see this postseason.
More upside than Carson Palmer, the quarterback of a team EVERYBODY wants to play.
More upside than Ben Roethlisberger, who won a Super Bowl when he was 23 years old.
More upside than both Vince Young and Matt Leinart, the two quarterbacks picked ahead of Cutler in the 2006 NFL Draft, and with whom he always will be linked.
I can't disagree totally with what Sando discovered. I do think Cutler has an astronomical upside. However, I'm surprised Romo, at least, at this juncture, wasn't the pick.
I do realize that, to this point, Romo has done everything except win a playoff game and he was, more or less, the only reason they lost their postseason affair with the Seahawks a year ago.
Then again, without his heroics down the stretch in 2006---do the Cowboys even make it?
I realize that Bill Parcells was reluctant to play him and his performance fizzled a tad down the home stretch of the regular season, though, to this point, has anybody come this far this fast? I don't think so-----then again, that may be the reason he wasn't selected.
After all, how much better can Romo play? He's already playing at an extremely high level and for the most part wisely utilizing the offensive talent around him. However, because we have seen more than occasional brilliance for Romo, his upside is narrowed. We know he's good. As for Cutler? Occasionally he has been dazzling, more often than not very respectable, and occasionally, looks like the second year player he is.
So in that particular sense, he may have only slightly scratched the surface of what we may see.
Even so, the calmness that Romo operates with is, in my estimation, one his core strengths and the reason I have to at least put him in a tie with Cutler.
The efficiency of his last drive to defeat Detroit was stellar. Cutler has yet to do anything like that. Granted he hasn't started a lot of games, but neither has Romo.
The way that Romo played in the Monday Night Football victory over the Bills was equal parts amazing and frustrating. He threw five interceptions, yet came up big when it counted and put his team in position for a game winning field goal.
He was also rather self-deprecating. After the game when asked about the five interceptions, he commented to ESPN's Suzy Kolber, "That's all, I only threw five of them?"
Cutler may be experiencing what it's like to automatically become one of the most famous people in Colorado by virtue of his new job, but Romo has become a star in a place that cares just as much about football as we do, while at the same time becoming a matinee idol. He's also doing it on a national stage--after all, the Cowboys are "America's Team."
At the end of the discussion, whether you choose Cutler or Romo, one thing we can all agree on, is that both of these players have bright futures ahead and we can all enjoy watching their potential get tapped.
Here is the link. Have a great day.
-"Z"
