November 24, 2006
Over and over in the midst of Thanksgiving's long day's football into night, Jake Plummer came up, in this studio, on that sideline, in another Web site.
Quite the topic of conversation, ol' Jake the Snake. Still is.
Everyone agreed that the Kansas City game was the last game for Plummer, and opinion being the father of fact, the very least Plummer would have to do is not lose the football game, and that would postpone the problem for another week.
As we know and as Plummer has known, his days have been numbered since the draft, when Mike Shanahan connived to get Jay Cutler. By common consent it seemed, Plummer's number was up.
Otherwise a whole bunch of folks would be found to not know what they are talking about, never a real concern among the shouting classes.
Old coach Jimmy Johnson, now a pundit, proclaimed that rookie Cutler should have been the Denver quarterback long ago, even if he wouldn't know Cutler from the guy who parks his car or Plummer without his beard.
Cris Collinsworth, or maybe it was Howie Long, counseled tolerance, citing Plummer's winning percentage with the Broncos and marveling at Plummer's adroitness outside the pocket. It was a matter of using Plummer properly, putting him in the best position to succeed.
It was possible to find reasoned judgment on both sides of the question, often from the same person.
None of that has changed since Plummer confirmed the worst against the Chiefs, except the weight of annoyance has tilted the choice much more to Cutler.
The unfortunate arrangement of the visiting locker room at Arrowhead Stadium put Cutler and Plummer side by side in the aftermath of Jake's Last Stand, and so there Cutler was, fresh and helpful, facing deadline media, vowing support for Plummer while Plummer, hidden but within earshot, awaited his turn in the box.
Whatever else is thought of Plummer, that he is inadequate, often harmful, at quarterback, sympathy must go to a man who will face his duty when his coach would not, and a man who has been answering an unasked question since the first game of the season.
When would he go?
Mike Shanahan created that situation - and he would not answer the same unasked question after the game - by inventing the tension in the first place.
At one point, Plummer blurted out that the press would know the answer before he would, and while he is giving us more credit than we deserve, his anxiety is obvious. And if a decision has been made, Shanahan ought not to be waiting three days to tell Plummer.
Would Plummer be a better quarterback without the threat of Cutler, clearly the anointed heir? Plummer was better last year when the only threat was from Bradlee Van Pelt, which is like being pressured by a house pet.
Shanahan's calculation that competition is healthy for all concerned is a sound concept, but it might not have worked on Plummer, any more than it seems to have worked on Tatum Bell or on Tony Scheffler or George Foster.
All players know how fragile are both their health and their jobs, and some players welcome the energy uncertainty brings. Others succeed better with reassurance, something that was moved from Plummer to Cutler.
The argument now is that Cutler cannot be worse than Plummer and there is no way to refute that, not having seen Cutler face a real rush or decisions of consequence.
From the meager evidence of preseason and limited practice, Cutler seems to have all the tools necessary to succeed. If he does not, then Shanahan has made the biggest mistake yet as a talent evaluator and no one forgets his endorsement of Bubby Brister and Brian Griese, nor of Plummer himself.
While it seems inevitable that Cutler will start the next game against Seattle, the simple truth is that abandoning Plummer is abandoning the season.
The Broncos may be one loss from being out of the playoffs altogether, and of the schedule ahead three losses seem wholly likely no matter who the quarterback is. Only Arizona and San Francisco seem to be comfortable wins.
That brings the Broncos in at 9-7 and outside looking in. Who gives the Broncos the best chance to win those other three games, Seattle, San Diego and Cincinnati? Is it a quarterback that might need to feel he is wanted and trusted, or a rookie who is learning with each new snap of the ball?
As long as the season is savable, the choice should be Plummer. Otherwise, the Broncos might as well just play the rest of the way waving a white flag.
)The problem is Big Score has done it in a couple of threads. If you want to call out a person's missed prediction once, great, but to go into a couple of different threads and be a stalker is just being an ###.
