Jay Cutler NFL Rumors: Former Star Quarterback Considering Broadcast Career

It has been quite an auspicious offseason for Jay Cutler in hopes of rebooting his NFL career in his first experience as an unrestricted free agent. Cutler has yet to attract any significant interest on the open market from a single NFL team which doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

With that in mind, ESPN is reporting that Jay Cutler has auditioned for Fox Sports in regards to covering NFL games as the company is looking for a new analyst that can work with Kevin Burkhardt following the departure of John Lynch to join the San Francisco 49ers as their new general manager earlier this offseason.

“Former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler flew to Los Angeles and auditioned with Fox on April 27 for a possible role in the network’s television booth, sources told ESPN.”

At this point in time, this may be Jay Cutler’s only realistic option given the lack of interest around the league for his services. Cutler is said to be eyeing an unquestioned starting quarterback spot but that hasn’t presented itself to him over the first several weeks of the free agency period. The only team that was believed to have an inquiry about Cutler was the New York Jets, but they have since moved on with their open competition at quarterback for the starting job.

For the first time in his NFL career, Jay Cutler now finds himself in the position of having to accept the fact that the consensus thought around the league is that he is no longer viewed to be a starting quarterback caliber player. Cutler is coming off an utterly disappointing 2016 season that was cut short after just five games due to a labrum injury. This marked the fewest games that Cutler has played in any season in a Chicago Bears’ uniform while also holding career lows in both total quarterback rating (27.8) and passer rating (78.1).

Prior to that, Jay Cutler had struggled to prove he could lead an NFL to a high level of success with the Bears leading them to just one playoff appearance in eight seasons. Jay Cutler holds almost every passing record in Bears franchise history, such as being the all-time leader in quarterback wins (51), passing yards (23,443), and touchdown passes (154). However, he has also thrown 109 interceptions in 102 regular-season games with the Bears, including tossing a career-worst 25 picks in the 2009 season.

What also doesn’t help his image is that there is a strong reputation build around his lack of strong leadership skills that has been put into serious questions at various points of his career in Chicago. All of these circumstances put together have only made it much more difficult for any organization to believe he can be the answer at quarterback for at least the 2017 season.

That said, Jay Cutler still has a strong desire to continue his NFL career despite the lack of interest. There has never been the question that Cutler doesn’t possess the talent to be a game-changer under center but rather he has struggled to fulfill that potential.

With Cutler now entering the tail end of his career, he will have to rely on his ability at this point of his career to help keep his hopes of continuing his NFL playing days alive.

Jay Cutler is now in the latter portion of his career that has pushed him to fall off the map entirely because of his strong reputation and last work on the field in the 2016 campaign working against him. The bottom line is that Cutler is a 34-year-old quarterback that likely has had his best behind him, which may ultimately force him to retire a bit sooner than desired for a career in sports broadcasting.

[Featured Image by Nam Y. Huh/AP Images]