Written by Ryan Wilson at CBSSports.com
Jay Cutler, who played 11 NFL seasons with two teams is no longer a free agent. According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo and Good Morning Football’s Peter Schrager, the quarterback will join Fox Sports. He’ll be part of the network’s No. 2 broadcast team — behind Joe Buck and Troy Aikman — working alongside Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis.
As recently as last week, days before the 2017 NFL Draft, Cutler’s agent sounded surprised by the retirement talk.
“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.”
The feeling wasn’t mutual, apparently; when the Bears released Cutler in early March , the Jets appeared to be the only suitor — accept they never came calling. And the Texans, another team desperately searching for a quarterback, traded up to take Deshaun Watson with the No. 12 pick. The Browns, perpetually in the quarterback market, also used the draft to fill that need (DeShone Kizer, second round), and the 49ers preferred Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley to Cutler.
It explains why, a day ago, Garafolo first reported that a career in broadcasting could be in Cutler’s immediate future . The decision comes a month after Tony Romo retired from the Cowboys to join CBS Sports as its lead NFL game analyst beginning with the 2017-2018 NFL season.
Cutler, 33, played in just five games last season because of injury, but in 2015, he ranked ninth in value per play among all quarterbacks, according to Football Outsiders, which was better than Matthew Stafford and league MVP Cam Newton. But that was the anomaly for Cutler, who regularly put up replacement-level numbers during his Chicago career.
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