His stain-free uniform already tossed into a laundry pile, Jay Cutler showered, dressed and was about to button his shirt and perhaps comb his hair when he became engulfed by cameras, microphones, notebooks, pens and their carriers.
Where’s that clipboard when a No. 2 quarterback needs it?
After the way veteran Jake Plummer played in the season opener Sunday at St. Louis and the rookie Cutler performed in the preseason, news the Broncos have a quarterback “situation” has stretched to the far reaches of the NFL.
“I’ve heard about the situation there in Denver,” Buffalo Bills backup quarterback Kelly Holcomb said. “It’s unfortunate, but anytime you have a new, first-round draft pick backing up a veteran, there’s going to be a situation.”
Backup quarterbacks come in various forms. Some are talented, first-round prospects such as Cutler, Arizona’s Matt Leinart, Tennessee’s Vince Young and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers – future No. 1 quarterbacks.
Other backups, such as San Francisco’s Trent Dilfer, are former veteran starters who probably are more polished than the younger, first-round quarterbacks playing ahead of them, but must wait until the kid exhausts all opportunity.
Then there are those like Holcomb, and before him, Frank Reich and Don Strock. These are the elite in that they are forever cast as No. 2s, yet consistently prove they can come off the bench and move the offense.
The final group consists of Kansas City’s Damon Huard, and before him, Koy Detmer, Gary Kubiak, Babe Laufenberg, Steve Spurrier, Jason Garrett, Terry Hanratty. These are quarterbacks who were pretty much considered backups from the time they entered the league and usually played only when absolutely necessary.
For Huard and the Chiefs, it has become absolutely necessary he play Sunday against the Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High. Chiefs starter Trent Green was knocked out last week with a severe concussion.
“It’s been awhile, but I’ve been in this situation before,” Huard said at his news conference Thursday.
Awhile? Huard will be starting for the first time in six years. But with Chiefs rookie Brodie Croyle needing more time to develop, Huard becomes the stopgap until either Green or Croyle is ready.
“The only advice I would have for him going against the Broncos, who have just come off a loss and are playing at Mile High, is wear a few extra pads and double-buckle your chinstrap.” said Bubby Brister, who as the backup to John Elway went 4-0 as a starter in the Broncos’ last Super Bowl season of 1998. “It’s going to be tough.”
Emotional pendulum
During the 1960s, a football fan could not have heard the term “backup quarterback,” without thinking “Zeke Bratkowski.” The name, and the Green Bay Packers’ who employed him, were unforgettable.
A former starter for the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams, Bratkowski rarely played later in his career for the Packers, who were led by Hall of Famer Bart Starr. But after weeks of watching from the sideline, Bratkowski watched Starr suffer a rib injury on the first play of the 1965 NFL playoff game against the Baltimore Colts.
Bratkowski played the rest of the game, completed 22-of-39 passes for 249 yards, and led the Packers on to the NFL championship game, where they beat the Cleveland Browns in Jim Brown’s final game.
“It can be emotionally draining even when you don’t play,” Bratkowski said about the backup role. “You didn’t get dirty, you didn’t get a bump or bruise and everybody’s into whether you won or lost. And here you are looking at it from the outside, in a sense. But then you know what? On Monday you start all over again. You prepare like you’re going to play every down.”
Bratkowski, Brister, Holcomb and Laufenberg agree a backup QB has two inherent challenges. One is preparing to play without benefit of practice reps during the week. The other is dealing with the weekly emotional pendulum.
“If you were to list the order of importance of the 45 players who are active on Sunday, the starting quarterback is No. 1 and the backup quarterback is No. 45,” said Laufenberg, who was the Cowboys’ backup in Troy Aikman’s first two seasons and is now a Dallas TV sports anchor. “The guy who goes down on three kickoffs is more important than the guy sitting on the sideline. But then, in the span of one play, you go from the 45th most important player to the first.”
Jump ahead 40 years from Bratkowski’s era. As the swarming media descended upon Cutler last Sunday in the visiting locker room of the Edward Jones Dome, he was confronted with another occupational hazard of the No. 2 quarterback.
“The dynamics with the starter,” Cutler said. “I mean, Jake had a bad game and all the sudden everyone thinks you should be in there. Right now, Jake’s the No. 1 guy. I doubt I would have been able to go in there and light it up. I’d probably encounter some of the same problems he did. I’ve got to learn.”
Morrall the mightiest
It’s not like the all-time best backup quarterbacks make for common suppertime conversation, but Earl Morrall and Steve Young probably would be near the top of most lists.
Morrall played behind four Hall of Fame QBs, replaced an injured Bob Griese to win 11 games as a starter, including two in the playoffs, during the Dolphins’ 17-0 season of 1972, came off the bench to help the Colts win Super Bowl V, and was the NFL’s MVP in 1968.
Young may have been the most athletic quarterback in NFL history, yet found himself spending four years stuck behind Joe Montana.
As for those who will be classified as backups and nothing but, Strock, Reich and Holcomb have to be considered among the best because they proved they could turn a crisis of emergency into the thrill of victory.
Huard will get his shot Sunday. But inside the quarterback fraternity, where every member understands how a three interception game can happen, no one believes Cutler should get his opportunity ahead of Plummer in that game.
“I’ve seen a lot of rookies do well in the preseason and then they get in a real game and it’s totally different for them,” Holcomb said. “I’m not saying that’s going to be the case with Cutler, but Jake’s won a lot of games for you guys. If you want to go where you all want to go this year, Jake’s going to be the guy who takes you there.”
Now that his splendid preseason has passed through the historical shredder, Cutler seems to have nicely straddled that thin attitude line between maintaining confidence and subjugating ego. As the No. 2 quarterback, he does not count answering questions about the No. 1 quarterback after a game in which he didn’t play among the highlights of his early career.
“It was stupid,” Cutler said. “A bad game is going to happen. This team is behind Jake. I’m behind him. The coaches are behind him. It’s the first game. We have 15 left. We’ll be fine.”
Listen to Mike Klis on “First-and-10” from 4-5 p.m. Fridays on ESPN 560 AM. He can be reached at 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
