Report: Redskins “Among The Leading Candidates” To Get Cutler

Yahoo! Sports published on Tuesday night a list of six teams interested in Denver quarterback Jay Cutler, whom the Broncos will trade. The list didn’t include the Redskins. But it now should. According to Mike Klis of the Denver Post, the Redskins are one of the leading candidates to land Cutler. The move isn’t surprising to us; we’ve heard chatter for several weeks that the Redskins are interested. Last month, executive V.P. of football operations Vinny Cerrato issued a carefully-worded non-denial denial of interest in Cutler. Another key angle at play here is the status of former Denver coach Mike Shanahan. The Redskins could be eyeballing a one-two punch that would involve getting Cutler now, and then getting Shanahan in 2010. And maybe, as our pal Todd Wright of Sporting News Radio pointed out during our Tuesday night visit with him, the ‘Skins would pull off an April/May coaching change, swapping out Jim Zorn for Shanahan. Of course, such a move would make it difficult to comply with the Rooney Rule, since anyone with any sense would realize that Shanahan is the target, if Zorn were to be fired so late in the offseason. Barring an Art Shell-style sham interview, the Redskins would have to factor a hefty fine into the budget for buying out Zorn and acquiring Shanahan.