Will Orton and draft picks be enough to land Cutler?

What is Jay Cutler worth?

That's the question being deliberated at Halas Hall today and at many other NFL headquarters around the country ever since the Denver Broncos decided Tuesday night to grant Cutler his request for a trade.

Cutler wants out of Denver, even though he is only halfway through a six-year, $48 million contract. With the Broncos, he enjoyed the luxury of throwing to two of the NFL's best young wide receivers in Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royals. But Cutler has thumbed his nose at the opportunity to play for Denver head coach Josh McDaniels, who, as the New England's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, was instrumental in developing seventh-round draft pick Matt Cassel into one of the league's highly rated quarterbacks last year.

Cutler's petulance has been well documented since he threw a temper tantrum after learning that McDaniels had, without informing him, considered a three-team trade that would have brought Cassel to the Mile High City and sent Cutler to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So, again, how much will another team be willing to invest in such a talented but high-maintenance player?

McDaniels and Broncos owner Pat Bowlen tried for more than a week to contact Cutler and reconcile their differences, but Cutler refused to respond. That's good for the Bears or any team seeking to acquire his services. Before this public feud, the Broncos may have been able to get a pair of first-round picks and a player for the 25-year-old Cutler, who threw for 4,526 yards and 25 touchdowns last season and was selected for the NFL Pro Bowl.

Now the Broncos have to get rid of him. There is just too much bad blood between Cutler and McDaniels to make that arrangement work, so his trade value should go down, unless a feeding frenzy among the many NFL teams with quarterback concerns pushes the price back up.

Cutler's departure would leave the Broncos with Chris Simms and Darrell Hackney at quarterback, so Denver will probably demand a quarterback with starting experience in return. Hackney has yet to throw an NFL pass. Simms has thrown 2 passes in the past two seasons and played in three games in the previous three years with a total of 15 starts in six NFL seasons.

Kyle Orton has 33 starts in four seasons for the Bears, including 15 last year when he was among the NFC's leading passers until a midseason ankle sprain curtailed his effectiveness.

If the Bears are looking to upgrade the quarterback position, and general manager Jerry Angelo has said as much, they won't find anyone in this year's draft who is anywhere close to Cutler's present level of play, certainly not with the 18th overall selection.

If giving up that pick and Orton is all it takes to land Cutler, who has already started 37 games in three seasons, it seems like a no-brainer. Two No. 1s seems like a stiff price, unless you consider some of the Bears' previous first-round picks (Cedric Benson, Michael Haynes and Rex Grossman leap to mind).

But there are at least five other teams believed to be seriously interested in Cutler - the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns - and all of them, with the exception of Cleveland, need an upgrade at quarterback more than the Bears.

With Orton, the Bears are in a position to offer the Broncos a more effective and/or experienced quarterback than most of the others. Cleveland can dangle Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn, but the Jets can offer only Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliff and Erik Ainge. The Bucs have Brian Griese, Luke McCown and Josh Johnson; and the 49ers have Alex Smith, Shaun Hill and Damon Huard. The Lions would be happy to swap Daunte Culpepper or Drew Stanton, but there isn't much of a market for either of them.

The talks are under way, and it will be interesting to see if it will be a Bear market for Cutler.