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Jay Cutler agrees to terms with the Miami Dolphins

Smokin’ Jay is taking his talents to South Beach

NFL: Chicago Bears at New York Giants Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

One of the NFL’s more colorful characters over the past decade, Jay Cutler, is making a return from a short lived retirement period:

After reports came out that Miami’s incumbent starter Ryan Tannehill had suffered yet another knee injury that could sideline him for a significant period of time, Cutler was a name that was whispered as a potential signing for them due to his connections with head coach Adam Gase. Gase had Cutler playing the best football of his career in 2015 before taking the job with the Dolphins and working similar magic with Tannehill and Matt Moore last season.

The details of the contract, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, are pretty interesting:

Cutler will be making a decent chunk of money to only be tied in with Miami for a year, which makes sense considering they had to lure him out of the FOX broadcasting booth. This likely means that we won’t be seeing Tannehill in 2017.

Another wrinkle to this story will undoubtedly be the decision to sign Cutler over Colin Kaepernick, who was one of the aforementioned replacement options. Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross was verbally supportive of Kaepernick’s protest last season, but his decision to wear a T-shirt paying homage to Fidel Castro did not bode well with linebacker Kiko Alonso or area reporter Armando Salguero who both have Cuban heritage.

Regardless, it feels like more of a non-story than ever in this case due to the fact that Cutler makes a ton of sense in Miami. This will be one of the more talented teams he’s been a part of, so seeing him paired up with Gase and handing the ball off to the workhorse Jay Ajayi will be intriguing this season.

The Ravens will certainly want to get a look at Cutler in the second week of the preseason as they’ll be hosting the Dolphins on Thursday night football.

Welcome back to the NFL Smokin’ Jay, it wouldn’t have been the same without you.