Each Wednesday, the podium at Dove Valley is reserved for the starting quarterback.
For the first time in three years, Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer was a Wednesday no-show. Hold on. Better make this clear. It wasn’t that Plummer didn’t show, he wasn’t invited.
Answer: Jay Cutler and Nate Peterson.
Question: Who are the only two athletes who forced Plummer to the bench?
All of Broncoland knew the first part of this Plummer trivia. Cutler is the Broncos’ rookie quarterback who will make his first NFL start Sunday night against the Seattle Seahawks at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Peterson once started ahead of Plummer, presumably before a much smaller audience, on the Capital High School basketball team in Boise, Idaho.
Those names represent the only two occasions Plummer has been demoted. Asked to share his thoughts about losing his starting job this week, Plummer politely declined to speak for the record Wednesday, explaining he didn’t want to distract from Cutler’s debut.
So while Plummer prepared for an indoor workout down the street by quietly dressing at his locker, Cutler took his first official turn on the weekly grilling stand.
An immediate impression: Cutler is so young, and so secure in his young skin, he’s not afraid to reveal the full truth. Sure, there’s a lot of pressure on him, he said, adding no sugar. If Seattle wants to blitz, he said to another question, hopefully the Broncos can burn them early.
Might as well be honest. As for the scrutiny, Cutler admitted it’s not just coming from outside the walls of the Broncos’ headquarters at Dove Valley. He senses it from his teammates as well.
“Right now, everyone I think is kind of pressing and just watching really closely to see what I do,” Cutler said. “I’ve just got to relax.”
Elsewhere, NFL quarterbacks who have been through this before don’t envy what Cutler is going through.
“You’ve got a lot more commitments to talk to the media, doing interview requests,” said Matt Hasselbeck, who will make his 76th start for the Seahawks on Sunday. “The PR department here didn’t really help me out. My first year they had me doing every single interview. The marketing department wanted to use you to try and sell season tickets. Your family and friends, they think they’re helping by calling you and wishing you good luck, but then you feel obligated to call them back or talk to them on the phone. … Sometimes the distraction of all the hype that surrounds your first start is tougher than playing the game.”
Cutler might be getting a break, then. He said he hasn’t received many voice mails this week. He has talked to his agent, Bus Cook, but his family and friends have pretty much left him alone. Mom and dad and his two sisters are staying with him, but they’ve been around his whole life.
Not that people mind offering tips when asked. Back in Nashville, Tenn., where Cutler played his college ball at Vanderbilt as recently as last season, fellow rookie Vince Young of the Tennessee Titans didn’t hesitate.
“Keep his head on a swivel, man,” Young said. “Because there’s going to be some stuff he didn’t see in preseason games, where you thought, ‘Man, this is easy.’ But when it is on the line and the game really means something, these guys are doing all kinds of stuff in coverage and sending all kinds of blitzes at you. And they’ll take some cheap shots at you because you’re a rookie.”
Cutler was asked during his news conference what he expected from the Seahawks’ defense. Know what he said? Good question. Wish he knew.
His heart and stomach may be racing on the inside, but outwardly, Cutler appears to barely have a pulse.
Could Hasselbeck, who didn’t start his first game until his fourth NFL season, imagine starting Game 12 as a rookie?
“I couldn’t, but I wasn’t as good as Cutler is,” Hasselbeck said. “He’s a guy who was drafted in the first round. The Broncos obviously feel like he was worthy of trading up to get. No one felt that way about me when I was coming out of college. I wasn’t invited to the combine.”
At the NFL scouting combine in February, Cutler addressed the media from a podium. He’s got that down.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
