Not to get carried away with the biggest star of the Broncos’ future, but on his first day on the job, Jay Cutler threw spirals.
Gorgeously tight, accurate, rotating spheres. Cutler threw spirals to receivers running from his right and more spirals to pass catchers running patterns from his left. Spirals on a humpbacked rope at a catchable speed.
Can the Super Bowl be far behind?
“I went with him a few times early in practice and I thought he threw the ball pretty good,” Broncos wide receiver Todd Devoe said. “He’s got a nice arm. His ball was on time. It’s early, so you can’t tell too much, but it seems like he’s caught the flow of things.”
But wait. There’s more. The Broncos conducted their first on-field offseason workout Tuesday at their Dove Valley headquarters with Cutler transferring plays he had been memorizing to the huddle.
Even for a Vanderbilt product, the terminology of the Broncos’ offense can seem like molecular physics.
“Going out on the field, getting him to break out of the huddle with the snap count and the called play – it’s not easy,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “To come in here and use different terminology on the first day with called plays, it puts a lot of pressure on the guy.”
For now, spirals and huddle presence are all there is to go on. The Broncos allow the media to watch the first 10 minutes of their offseason workouts before lowering the shades. Cutler looked great in the passing warm- ups. But then again, so did starting quarterback Jake Plummer, backup Bradlee Van Pelt and free-agent signee Preston Parsons.
“We had already seen a lot of tape so you know a lot about these guys before they come in,” Shanahan said. “But you know once a guy goes through his first day that he can make all the throws, and he did a very good job calling plays. It was a good first day for him.”
Team policy does not permit rookies to be interviewed until Friday.
Plummer is about to begin his fourth season as the Broncos’ starting quarterback, but make no mistake, all eyes will be on Cutler through the preseason. A four-year starter from the Southeastern Conference, Cutler is only the second quarterback drafted in the first round by the Broncos and the first since Tommy Maddox in 1992.
Introduced to the Denver-area media after his first-round selection last month, Cutler joined his new teammates on the practice field for the first time Tuesday. He showed up with a haircut straight out of a mid-1960s yearbook and an arm that attracted notice from a field away.
“In kind of a vet move, I was peeking over there and I saw him make some nice throws,” safety John Lynch said.
What can the Broncos expect from Cutler in 2006? Anything from Carson Palmer to Ben Roethlisberger. Palmer was the league’s No. 1 draft pick in 2003 but didn’t play a down for the Cincinnati Bengals until his second season. Roethlisberger was the No. 11 selection in 2004, but was rushed into replacing the injured Maddox in the second game of his rookie year. Big Ben won his first 15 regular-season starts, a streak that extended into his second season in 2005.
Cutler may hope that as a rookie he has more in common with Roethlisberger than just their 11th overall draft status. The Broncos may hope Cutler’s rookie season mirrors Palmer’s – Rod Smith said as much two weeks ago – because that means Plummer is healthy and productive.
Either way, Cutler is here. And everybody’s watching.
“He’s kind of quiet,” running back Ron Dayne said. “I haven’t heard him speak too much.”
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Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
