As a result, the team has decided to trade Cutler, who they are convinced "no longer has any desire to play for the Denver Broncos."
Cutler and his agent have a different spin on the story, NFL senior analyst Chris Mortensen reports. Asked by text message whether Bowlen has directly tried to contact him, Cutler replied, "No."
His agent, Bus Cook, said the Broncos first got in touch with him on Tuesday.
"The perception that they've been burning the phone lines the last 10 days is wrong," Cook said. "In fact, the other day I asked Jay if he had heard from them and he said, 'no.' I didn't hear from them until yesterday [Tuesday] morning when [GM] Brian Xanders called me and said that Mr. Bowlen needs to speak with Jay now. I told him all I can do is leave Jay a message. Where Will He Land
ESPN.com's Bill Williamson takes a look at the likely landing spots for Jay Cutler. Blog
•Blog network: More on Cutler "I didn't reach Jay directly -- I don't know what he was doing -- but I left a message. Then Brian called at the end of the day and asked me if I had heard from him. I hadn't. I heard from Jay when he called to tell me he just saw on TV he was being traded. They can spin it the way they want to spin it."
A Broncos official scoffed at the notion that Bowlen didn't reach out directly to Cutler, suggesting that any owner would set up a call through a GM or a personal assistant.
Cutler has been unhappy ever since learning that McDaniels failed to inform him about trade talks in which the Broncos showed interest in Matt Cassel. Cassel wound up being traded by New England to Kansas City, and Cutler asked to be traded.
Still, McDaniels had faith he could repair the strained relationship with his temperamental quarterback -- if only he could get him to call him back. On Tuesday, he became convinced that just wasn't going to happen.
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Chris Mortensen says 12 teams have contacted the Broncos over the last week about Jay Cutler and six of them are serious.
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Cutler is halfway through the six-year, $48 million contract he signed as the 11th overall pick out of Vanderbilt in the 2006 draft. He's 17-20 as Broncos starter, although that's misleading because of Denver's dismal defense.
In games where the Broncos have allowed 21 points or fewer, Cutler is an impressive 13-1, and that only loss was to Green Bay in 2007 when the Packers won the coin toss and Brett Favre threw an 82-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime.
Cutler set several franchise passing records last season, when he threw for 4,526 yards, 25 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. In his 37-game career in Denver, he's completed 62.5 percent of his passes for 9,024 yards, 54 TDs and 37 interceptions.
Cutler was upset when Shanahan was fired as coach, and even requested that members of Shanahan's offensive staff be retained, which didn't happen.
He had started to come around, meeting several times with McDaniels and expressing an eagerness to learn his intricate Patriots-style attack that will replace the West Coast system he's been running since he was a rookie.
That all changed when word leaked that McDaniels had spoken with the Patriots about Cassel.
At the NFL owners' meetings in Southern California last week, McDaniels said the team was committed to Cutler, although he said no options, including trades, were being ruled out.
"I've always been optimistic," McDaniels said at the NFL meetings. "He's on our team, he's under contract, and I understand there's things we have to work toward in our relationship."
