Jay Cutler, a free agent for the first time in his 11-year career, is not retiring even if nobody is interested in his services at this time. Despite how much he appears to be enjoying his (naked) vacation, he isn't ready to enter permanent vacay-mode just yet.
On Tuesday, Cutler's agent shot down the rumors that his client will retire.
"He never has mentioned retirement to me," Bus Cook told ESPN's Adam Schefter. "Jay Cutler, as far as I know, is ready to play and wants to play, and his skill set is as good as any quarterback in the league."
Let's break down that short quote into chunks, starting with Part I: "He never has mentioned retirement to me."
That's a super important point! While retirement rumors have swirled since the Bears released him last month, Cutler has never indicated that he wants to retire. They are nothing but rumors. If Cutler has never mentioned retirement to his agent -- the guy he pays to get him a high-paying job -- I'm guessing he doesn't want to retire.
Part II: Cutler "is ready to play." Again, this is important. Cutler's 2016 season was cut short due to a torn labrum, which isn't an injury anybody should overlook -- especially not when that injury happens to a quarterback who relies on arguably the strongest arm in the league. But based on Cook's comment, Cutler's recovery is going along just fine. Of course, Cook represents Cutler so it's not like he was going to come out and say something negative about his client's health
Part III: "His skill set is as good as any quarterback in the league." I'm guessing that most of you rolled your eyes when you read that part, but Cook is not wrong. Cutler's skill set in terms of his arm, capability to throw from any platform, underrated athleticism and his ability to navigate tight pockets is one of the best in the league. However, that skill set has never translated to overwhelming success on the field. Nobody will deny that, but -- and this is the important part -- all it takes is one team to look at that skill set and believe it will be the team to mold Cutler into a top quarterback.
To this point, it hasn't happened. Cutler, along with Colin Kaepernick, is still a free agent even though worse quarterbacks like Josh McCown and Brian Hoyer landed somewhere. But if a contender loses a quarterback before the season (like what happened to the Vikings last year), they should immediately call Cutler. For the record, I already believe the Texans, who lost out on Tony Romo to CBS, should be signing Cutler. But that's a story for another day in that I already wrote that story, which you can read here.
