Denver - After weeks of contention, McJaygate ended happily, at least for Broncos officials on the top floor of Dove Valley. Denver shipped disgruntled quarterback Jay Cutler to the Chicago Bears on Thursday in a blockbuster trade, putting an end to the acrimonious saga between new coach Josh McDaniels and his unhappy quarterback. The Broncos received quarterback Kyle Orton, two first-round picks and a third-round pick in exchange for Cutler and a fifth-round pick... However, Cutler may have an issue with Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner. Coming out of high school, Cutler thought he had a scholarship to the University of Illinois, where Turner was the head coach. Cutler has said Turner pulled the scholarship late in the recruiting process, resulting in his going to Vanderbilt. The Bears were Cutler's favorite NFL team while he was growing up in Santa Claus, Ind.

For openers, there was no reason to include that last bit about Cutler growing up as a Bears fan, other than I'm fascinated to learn there's actually a place called Santa Claus, Ind. You'd think a guy who grew up there would be jolly instead of a self-serious little pissant like Cutler. That aside, good for Josh McDaniels that he got back at Cutler by sending him to probably the worst situation in the NFL for him personally. Not only does he already have a grudge against the OC of the Bears, but he has absolutely no weapons around him. I mean, who's Chicago's best offensive player? Brandon Lloyd? The Olin Kreutz, the center? Be careful what you wish for, Jay.

But the real reason I'm blogging this is that THIS is exactly the kind of deal I expected the Patriots to get for Matt Cassel. This is, or should be, the going rate for a proven QB coming into his prime. Cutler might be a dink, but guys with his numbers don't become available every day, so when they do, you've got to pay dearly. It's a supply & demand thing. The Belichick bashers (I tip a glance at Dennis & Callahan) are using this trade as evidence that The Hooded One dropped the ball on the Cassel trade. But that presupposes one of two things. Either teams offered a deal like this to the Pats and Belichick decided he'd rather take less, or that they wanted to make a better offer than Kansas City did, but Belichick never asked them. The first scenario is ridiculous and the second is preposterous. The only explanation that makes sense is the one we've known for weeks now: The best concrete offer Belichick had was the deal he made. Tampa came in with something along the lines of "Well, if we can work out a deal with Denver they might give up the 12th pick in the draft that is if they're willing and if they're interested in Cassel blah blah blah..." and Belichick couldn't sit around waiting for all those planets to align while Cassel ate up $14 million of cap space. So he pulled the trigger on the best deal he had, period.

So the Cassel deal wasn't a failing of Belichick, it was a failing of 30 other GMs in football. How is it that Jerry Angelo would give up 2-1st and his starting QB for a moody, selfish, coach killing diva, but not for Cassel who's won the Offensive Player of the Week every 8th start in his career? If I owned the Bears, you couldn't walk in my office today from all the heads I'd be rolling.