Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Jay Cutler can take liberties with Dolphins coach Adam Gase. Because the two have a past, Cutler is allowed to bust Gase’s chops. He’s also allowed to make strategic suggestions on a fairly regular basis.

“The biggest thing for me,” said Gase, Cutler’s offensive coordinator in Chicago in 2015, “is just kind of knowing when to shut up when I’m talking to him.”

The relationship works because Cutler, an 11-year veteran quarterback, also knows when to shut up.

Last week’s season-opening 19-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers was such a time.

Although the Dolphins trailed 10-3 at halftime, Cutler resisted the temptation to advise Gase on the second-half gameplan.

“First game,” Cutler said. “I kind of knew what he wanted to do this first game, so I kind of left him alone.”

Cutler knew Gase could figure this one out by himself.

After all, everyone knew what had to happen.

“We were going to have to do some stuff offensively, push the ball downfield to win this one,” Cutler said.

“He’s not dumb. He’s the head coach here for a reason. He has been successful for a reason.”

In the second half, the Dolphins came out firing. On their first possession Cutler went downfield for wide receiver DeVante Parker (the play in which Parker appeared to catch the ball, fumble and then recover; it was ruled an incomplete pass) and then capped the drive with the only touchdown of the game, a 29-yarder to wide receiver Kenny Stills.

It didn’t stop there. Cutler also had that 31-yard completion to Parker, in which Parker went up high to snatch what looked like an interception.

Cutler went deep to Parker twice in the fourth quarter, both resulting incomplete passes.

It didn’t matter.

Cutler, a strong-armed, aggressive sort, got his wish to throw downfield.

And that’s part of the reason they passed their first test together with the Dolphins.

There will be many more tests for this Cutler/Gase relationship. And undoubtedly they won’t all go as smoothly as their first one against the Chargers. There will be times they don’t agree.

More Top Picks Best Comal Pans

More importantly, however, there will be times when each knows know when to shut up.

[email protected]

Twitter @Chrisperk