Krieger: Broncos finally beat the Snake out of Jake

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 28, 2006 at midnight

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ENGLEWOOD - By the time Mike Shanahan finally uttered the words, they were no longer unexpected, but only because every media outlet this side of Al-Jazeera claimed by then to have broken the story.

Before all that, Shanahan's decision to change horses in the middle of the stream was unexpected for one reason: It's hard to come up with a precedent.

I asked veteran John Lynch if he'd seen anything like it, a rookie inserted at quarterback in the middle of a playoff race not because of injury, and he recalled Shaun King replacing Trent Dilfer for Tampa Bay 10 games into the 1999 season.

I had to look it up, but there was another factor in that one: Dilfer broke his collarbone. The Bucs dumped him after the season in favor of King, but it's not quite the same.

So, yes, by replacing Jake Plummer with Jay Cutler 11 games into the season, Mike Shanahan has done the unconventional, although the unconventional is, by now, conventional for a coach whose fundamental football strategy is misdirection.

Why replace a 10-year veteran with a rookie when you're still fighting for a playoff berth? For the future?

"I think you know me well enough that I usually work in the present," Shanahan said. "I don't work in the future. I think he gives us our best chance to win now. Obviously, you've got to go out there and get it done."

Which begs the question: Why would a rookie give you a better chance than a 10-year veteran?

Because Jake is no longer the Snake, that's why. And it's the Broncos' doing.

Jake arrived 3 1/2 years ago a swashbuckler, a little like Cutler in cockiness, if not pedigree. He was the comeback kid for the Cardinals, the risk-taker who could throw 18 touchdowns and 20 interceptions, as he did in his final season at Arizona.

But that wasn't what the Broncos wanted. The Broncos wanted the big plays but not the mistakes. So they tried to change him. And they succeeded.

In his second year, he was still the Snake, his risks resulting in 27 touchdowns, 20 interceptions and a playoff berth. Not good enough.

The club called him in and made him watch every throw, over and over. The idea was to wring out the mistakes. It worked, too. Last season, his numbers shrank into modesty - 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions, which was about right, from the Broncos' point of view. Finally, he had been remade.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the new Jake. He showed up for the AFC Championship Game and laid an egg. And suddenly, everybody was all over him again. All the progress and study and caution, none of it mattered. He was Jake the Mistake again. It was the name of a Web site.

He showed up this season a different guy. There were flashes of the Snake, but mostly he looked like a man afraid to make a mistake. Naturally, he made more.

These were no longer mistakes going for greatness. These were nervous mistakes - dropping a snap, throwing behind a wide-open receiver, missing a read. These were the mistakes of a quarterback who had lost his confidence. Shanahan's Frankenstein experiment had taken a wrong turn somewhere. The big plays were gone, but the mistakes remained.

Maybe it was because Shanahan drafted Cutler to look over Jake's shoulder. Maybe it was because, no matter how careful Jake was, it didn't seem to matter. Maybe it was because being so careful was not who he was.

Doesn't really matter. Shanahan's decision that Cutler gives them a better chance than Plummer at this point is not about Cutler. He hasn't changed.

It's about Plummer. He has.

"I was hoping it was going to be at the end of the season," Shanahan admitted. "You know, have one season to kind of learn the system, feel comfortable with it."

Plummer's deteriorating performance forced Shanahan to move up the timetable. But there's also a message in it. Cutler must be permitted his mistakes. Each one cannot be cause for a community crisis, as it was with Jake.

Cutler does not strike you as a worrier. Asked Monday why a rookie would make things better than a veteran, he shrugged and grinned.

"I don't know," he said. "It might make things worse. We'll have to find out."

As tough as it is for a coach to accept, that's exactly the attitude he needs. Cutler needs to study and work, but he can't be afraid to make a mistake, which is how Jake looked at the end.

Can a rookie salvage the season?

"Obviously, with the losing streak we're on, it doesn't hurt to try," receiver Javon Walker said. "If he does, we'll ride it all the way out. If not, he's our quarterback of the future."

That's the reality. It will be the right move, eventually. Whether it is the right move right now, we shall soon see.

Cutler has more natural ability than Plummer and a much bigger arm. But Plummer's career trajectory still offers a lesson for Cutler's.

A quarterback is who he is. You can wring it out of him if you want, but don't expect to get it back.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

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