Jay Cutler Should Never Play Football for the Miami Dolphins Again

Jay Cutler is done playing for the Miami Dolphins.

Well, he's done for at least a couple weeks after fracturing multiple ribs against the Jets this past weekend. But Cutler should be done playing for the Dolphins, period. Full stop. Like, it should never, ever happen again. What is the point, really?

There is no sugarcoating just how bad Cutler has been in a Miami Dolphins uniform. Besides the very forgettable (if we are lucky enough, we can forget it) seven-touchdown, five-interception performance he has produced through six starts this season, the team as a whole has looked nothing like the energetic 2016 Adam Gase-led squad that won nine of its last ten games to clinch the franchise's first playoff berth since 2008.

Nope. Under Cutler's leadership, the Dolphins have looked like, well, Jay Cutler. Disinterested. Foggy. Lethargic. And for the most part, just a sad waste of talent.

Enter Matt Moore, back-up quarterback extraordinaire, a player with elite, Red Bull-like, contagious energy that his teammates crave. Moore is the man who came into the game after Cutler's injury and brought the Dolphins back from a 28-14 deficit to a 31-28 win over the Jets this past weekend.

Sure, Moore has a 15-14 record as the Fins' starter, but it's obvious the offense plays better with him under center than it does with Cutler throwing the ball. And right now, that's all that matters.

To be clear, Moore is definitely an in-case-of-emergency-break-glass kind of player. When Ryan Tannehill and his glass knee shattered last season, Moore stepped in and did the job. Now, after Cutler's ribs were reorganized by the Jets' defensive line, Moore is back for an encore. This past Sunday, he showed he just might be up to the task.

The stats are pretty cut and dried when comparing Moore and Cutler. Neither is great, but one is at least good. The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson breaks it down thusly: Under Gase, the Dolphins average 6.7 points per quarter with Matt Moore; they average 3.3 points per quarter with Cutler. The results just haven't been there with Cutler, and there is no reason to think they'll suddenly appear when he returns from injury with a handful of games left.

But the Dolphins can't stop there. They should free Cutler from his football duties and let him return to retirement with a parting gift of two cracked ribs and the $10 million they paid him to give it a whirl. It didn't work out, and he can't be asked to stick around in Miami to play behind a career backup. Cut him loose. Sign someone who might have a better chance to succeed in the event Moore goes down.

Even with the Dolphins sitting at a surprising 4-2, it's not about this season — it's about the future. The Dolphins' long-term quarterback is still Tannehill; the back-up quarterback is Moore. That much has been proven this season. And Cutler is a bad Miami Dolphins quarterback. There's no longer any doubt about that.

The Cutler experiment just didn't work out. It's time to end it, the sooner the better.