The Dolphins signed Jay Cutler on Sunday, ending speculation about what move they would make at the quarterback position in the wake of Ryan Tannehill re-injuring his left knee during practice last week.
Cutler wasn’t the only name under consideration by the team. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reports three other names that were bandied about at some point before Cutler became the newest member of the team.
As you’d expect, Colin Kaepernick was one of the names. The other two reported by Salguero were Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton.
Tebow, who now plays minor league baseball in the Mets system, played for Gase when Gase was the quarterbacks coach in Denver during the 2011 season. The Broncos won the AFC West and beat the Steelers in a playoff game that year before trading Tebow to the Jets the next offseason. Current Dolphins exec Mike Tannenbaum was the Jets General Manager at the time, but Tebow’s stay with the team was far less fruitful on the field.
Orton was also on the 2011 Broncos, so familiarity with Gase seems to be the common thread with them and Cutler and Salguero adds that some names were discarded quickly.
Orton was waived in November after losing the starting job to Tebow early in the season. He has not played in the NFL since 2014 while Tebow’s last stint was with the Eagles in the 2015 preseason, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if any consideration of bringing them to Miami fell into the short-lived category.