The future and present in Denver

By Robert Rousseau  |   Monday, November 27, 2006  |  Comments( 1 )

Denver Broncos
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"He's our future; he's our present," Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan said in reference to his newly appointed rookie starting quarterback, Jay Cutler.

"Rookie" is the keyword here.

Needless to say, it's a risky move by Shanahan. Particularly when you consider the fact that the Broncos are battling for a playoff seed. Further, their next game - which would be Cutler's first start - is against last year's NFC champions, the Seattle Seahawks.

A night game, no less. As if the added pressure was needed.

Fact is, Jake Plummer has been blamed for far too much of Denver's offensive woes this season. Consider their Thanksgiving night loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. On that night the offense only managed 38 total rushing yards.

Oh yeah, and 10 of those came by way of Plummer's own legs. Not exactly a lot of help for play-action fakes, is it?

Still, there is no mistaking the fact that Plummer has not played well this season. Only a fool would disagree. In addition, it seems that Shanahan has an extreme amount of confidence in his new starting quarterback.

"There's a lot of pressure on a first-year quarterback, no question about it," Shanahan said. "I think this kid can handle it. I think he gives us the best chance to win."

Beyond that, there is reason to believe that this former Vanderbilt star can play in this league. After all, he did lead the league in the preseason with a 108.3 passer rating. Of course, that came mostly against backups and guys trying to make their respective teams.

On Sunday, he'll be up against some of the best defenders in the league. Real starters from a good team. Can a rookie hold up?

Who knows.

What we do know is that Cutler has a rocket arm and a nice college resume. Even with that, he's going to need more than 38 yards from his offense in order to be successful.

In the end, this is probably going to be one of those all or nothing decisions. We'll likely all call this Shanahan's best move of the year, or a terrible tactical error.

Looking forward to seeing which one. The starting point? Sunday night.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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