The Rocky Mountain News reported Friday that the 25-year-old Vanderbilt graduate recently was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and unnamed sources told the newspaper that he is insulin dependent.

Type 1 diabetes means his body doesn't produce insulin, a hormone which is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.

"(It) definitely affected my game (last season) . . . but now we know, now we can deal with it," Cutler told the newspaper. "I'm not the first person to get it, I'm not the last person to get it (and) it's very treatable."

Denver television station KCNC reported Cutler began to lose weight in October and was 202 pounds at the end of the 2007 season, 32 pounds less than what he weighed when it began.

Last season, he passed for 3,497 yards and 20 touchdowns.