Jay Cutler appears, for all intents and purposes, to be on the way out in Denver. While many folks have previously suggested that Cutler and head coach Josh McDaniels might mend fences and actually use this mess to strengthen the team, that seems highly unlikely now. At this point with Cutler requesting a trade, it’s really all about finding a suitor.

While I had previously suggested the Bears as a potential destination, the Jets are also in the mix now. They’ve informed the Broncos that if they do end up trading Cutler, they have a high level of interest in the quarterback, according to the New York Daily News. Why would the Jets be interested, you ask? Well, new head coach Rex Ryan’s quote about their quarterback situation is pretty indicative.

If nothing changes, Ryan said Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff will go into training camp as “1 and 1-A. Clemens may get the first snap, but then 1-A is Ratliff. This is clearly an open competition. Erik Ainge, if he comes around and lights it up, he will be in there.”

So, to clarify: now that the Jets lost Brett Favre, they are staring down a three-way competition between Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliff and Erik Ainge. That’s not “dire.” That should be “full-on panic mode,” especially given the improvements being made by their division opponents over the past year: Terrell Owens to Buffalo, Tom Brady’s supposedly returning health and this guy named Chad Pennington who played somewhere before Miami over the past year.

And even if they hadn’t made upgrades, the Jets are still in desperate need of a quarterback who doesn’t stink. Given the moves they’ve made over the past two years — most of which were pretty drastic — seeing them lob some valuable draft assets at the Broncos wouldn’t be shocking at all.

ESPN.com tells us that Brett Favre told his agent to tell the New York Jets to tell us that Brett Favre is retiring. Wow, that information is traveling through a lot of hands. You ever play that he said/she said whisper game? Maybe Favre is just brushing his teeth and we have it all wrong.

Think back to a few seconds ago. Upon hearing this news, what was your immediate response? Believe it or not, your reaction to Favre’s retirement says a lot about you. See how you measure up.

“Eh.” You are a well-adjusted, pragmatic individual who recognizes a man who has frittered away his goodwill.

A noncommittal shrug; silence. You spent half a second thinking about that time Favre threw a touchdown, ripped off his helmet, and ran down the field smiling. Then a call beeped in and you spent the next ten minutes helping a customer troubleshoot his Internet connection. This is not Saturday, sir. Get to work.

Laughter. Your sadism is misplaced, and with regards to what makes you laugh, your bar is set pretty damn low.

Weeping. You are Brett Favre.

“Oh, no!” You actually haven’t heard the news yet. You just realized you left your fork in the microwave, that’s all.

“Gee whiz! Time to blog!”, followed by a slow, whiny fart. You are me.

Do you want to hear a very minor update about the status of Brett Favre’s playing career? Of course you do. This is what you live for. You live for Brett Favre and you live for McDonalds burgers and fries on top of a pizza. Last week, Peter King said on “PTI” that Favre didn’t want to have surgery on his right bicep, and the Jets wanted him to, so that totally meant Favre didn’t want back in with the Jets anymore. But, apparently, if the Vikings came calling, Favre would be back in the NFL for another year.

But what about Brett? Don’t we want to hear straight from the Legend’s mouth? His hopes and dreams? His intentions on whether or not he will be gunslingin’ all over the field again? Well, according to the New York Daily News, we’re about two to three weeks away.

Favre, 39, mulling retirement, is going to take at least two to three weeks before declaring his intentions, a league source said Sunday. Ideally, the Jets would like a decision by Feb. 18, the start of the scouting combine, but they’re willing to wait longer, if necessary, the source said.

The key date is Feb. 27, the start of free agency and the trading period. GM Mike Tannenbaum and Favre spoke last week about the future Hall of Famer’s future, NBC Sports reported yesterday.

Now, does this mean Brett Favre is going to tell us if he’s going retire or not? Or does this just mean in two to three weeks he’s going to say peace out to the Jets and we’re going to be sitting around for the next few months wondering whether or not he’s going to hook on with another team?

I’ll put 20 bucks on the latter.

You would expect that Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, despite all the silly things that happened between Favre and the Green Bay Packers administration, might still be friends. After all, Favre was, for better or worse, Rodgers’ “NFL father figure” and served as a mentor to the Cal grad for three years.

But if you assumed that, you would be quite wrong. Rodgers spoke with Michael Irvin on air recently, and if his comments are true, then he and Favre haven’t spoken in a year.

MI: Wait, wai, wai, wait. When you were playing together, how much speaking did he do with you.

AR: I mean, it was me and him. The last year, ’07, we had no other quarterback on the roster, it was me and him, you know, we’d see each other every day, jog around with each other every day, you know he knew how I felt about him, that I had the utmost amount of respect for him, you know…and to not have talked to him in over a year? That’s disappointing.

Wow. I mean, you would suppose that Favre wouldn’t be that childish, right? And, yeah, I suppose there’s a decent excuse for the guy if he was really trying to forget Green Bay and just simply move on. But then how do you account for No. 4 constantly going to the media about his problems with the Packers and then allegedly handing the Detroit Lions the Green Bay playbook?

It’s pretty obvious to anyone with a brain that Favre still cares about Green Bay; that’s his right considering how long he played there. But to simply ignore Rodgers — a friend and former colleague — for over a year, well, that’s just downright childish. And embarrassing.

Who’s ready for some Brett Favre retirement speculation this morning? Oh, me me me!

Peter King of Sports Illustrated was on “Pardon The Interruption” yesterday. King is Favre’s bestie. If you don’t know this yet, you obvs haven’t been reading enough Perez Hilton or TMZ.

Anyways, King indicated that Favre’s refusal to get surgery on his right shoulder even with the Jets’ encouragement is a sign he might be done for good. (Ha.)

King told “PTI” that Jets doctors suggested Favre have surgery on his torn right biceps tendon if he wants to play next season, and Favre has declined to have the surgery. “That to me in part … was Brett basically saying, ‘No mas,’” King said.

But King added that he had “a gut feeling” Favre would seriously consider a return if he could somehow play for the Minnesota Vikings. “If he’s not going to be able to play where he really wants to play, I think he’s not going to play,” the Favre mouthpiece told “PTI.”

[ ... ]

Writing on SI.com, King said he believes Favre will retire because Woody Johnson wants the 39-year-old to participate in the Jets’ offseason program.

Oh, so he may be done, except if the Vikings want to pick him up, because after 16 seasons in Green Bay and one with the Jets, Favre apparently only has his sights set on the Vikings. Makes perfect sense.

For what it’s worth, Ryan Wilson of Fanhouse notes Jets owner Woody Johnson is still very much in the “I still love you Brett” camp. But then again, so is King, and all it’s gotten him is Favre talking behind his back to Lindsay Lohan at Samantha Ronson’s latest DJ gig.

At least that’s what US Weekly told me.

Everybody hates Brett Favre! OK, not everybody. Maybe not even the majority of Americans, or the majority of football fans. But if things keep on this way, count on the tide turning.

The story, which you’ve likely already heard by now, is that Thomas Jones criticized Brett Favre for sucking, but he didn’t really do it in a way that would cause offense. It was more of a “Brett knows he sucked, we know, let’s move on,” sort of thing. Worse things have been said about Brett Favre. But since wittle Bretty is involved, the media would like to know if Brett is going to respond to the criticism that he sucked. His answer? “Nope, it’s true: I sucked.”

“The bottom line is I didn’t play well in the final five games,” Favre added, according to the Sun-Herald. “It starts with me and it should. I am not ripping Thomas because that is not my nature. My expectations of myself are high and the only one that I let down was myself.” “When I got traded, I thought it was worth a try. I gave it my all. It just didn’t work out.”

For as much as I’m usually willing to destroy Favre — why? pure hatred, that’s why — I have to admit that is a totally honest quote. Well done, Brett. I shall grant you this. No please go away, before another player that played with Rex freaking Grossman as his quarterback and never said a word starts ripping you again. Don’t make Justin Gage step to the mic, son.

If there is one thing you can say about Brett Favre, besides the fact that he wears Wrangler jeans, has a mainstream media obsessed with his every throw and is simultaneously gritty, gutty and fearless, it’s that he likes to teeter-totter between staying in the game and bowing out for good. It’s annoying, but whatever: I suppose our emotions should not be some intrinsically tied to a bearded man’s work status in the NFL.

But what’s different from the last few years is Favre’s physical condition. A pillar of health in a league of broken down, ailing men, Favre has had a remarkable knack for not missing games or sustaining any serious injuries throughout his career. But staring potential shoulder surgery in the face at the age of 39, Favre’s physical well-being might have him hang up the cleats for good.

“First and foremost, (how I feel) physically is something I have to pay attention to. I’m 39 years old. That’d be the first thing,” said Favre. “Whether or not I’d require surgery, that’s something (I’ll assess). If was surgery, whether I need it, (may determine) whether I’d play or not. I’m 39; I don’t want to have a bunch of surgeries to keep playing.”

Twenty bucks* says Favre won’t have word out either way until  July. Or maybe August.

*Offer not refundable anytime, anywhere.