Texans Had “Mild Interest” In Jay Cutler, But Bill O’Brien Preferred Tom Savage

April 18, 2017

According to Jeff Dickerson of ESPN, the Texans actually expressed “mild interest” in free agent QB Jay Cutler this offseason. However, Texans HC Bill O’Brien reportedly prefers to move forward with Tom Savage, as opposed to bringing in Cutler.

Dickerson mentions that the Jets were “seriously interested” but they’re obviously no longer an option for him now that they’ve signed veteran QB Josh McCown.

There has been some recent talk that retirement is a serious consideration for Cutler and considering the amount of money he’s made the fact that he’s dealt with injuries in recent years, Dickerson mentions that it’s easy to understand why he might be leaning towards retirement.

Ian Rapoport recently said that barring a team sustaining an injury to their starting quarterback this summer, it’s possible that Cutler could just call it a career.

“There’s really only a couple starting quarterback spots that are even available,” Rapoport said. “The Browns would be one. I doesn’t seem like Cutler would be interested in going there. The Texans would be another. It doesn’t seem they have interest in him. So Cutler may face a similar situation, actually, to Tony Romo, which is to just chill, wait, and if something happens — some horrible camp injury, like what happened to Teddy Bridgewater last year — maybe Cutler’s name would be called. But I do know he’s talked to people that he knows pretty well about retirement being a possibility. He actually might have no choice.”

Cutler, 33, is a former first-round pick of the Broncos back in 2006. He spent three years in Denver before he was traded to the Bears in 2009. He was in the fourth year of his seven-year, $126.7 million contract that included $54 million guaranteed when the Bears cut him loose at the start of the 2017 league year.

In 2016, Cutler appeared in five games and throw for 1,059 yards while completing 59.1 percent of his passes to go along with four touchdowns and five interceptions.

We have him featured in our Top 50 Available Free Agents list.