Well… at least you can’t blame Jay Cutler for the Bears’ financial ineptness, but Forbes does an insightful job of revealing how much more profitable the Chicago franchise should be given the situation. Check it out now!
Answer: the smartest player on the Chicago Bears. Why? Because he used his noodle and listened to his agent, waiting to get a guaranteed deal (rumored to be around $100,000 even if he gets cut) rather than taking the first offer the Bears threw at him which would have let him loose to the wolves and left with him very little if Caleb Hanie heals quickly and Chicago decides to part with him.
Now, the risk and reward are at least a little closer in line. Todd Collins will sacrifice his brain and his 38-year-old body behind a questionable offensive line and in return will earn some dough to pay off the mortgage a little.
Starting to get your Todds confused with your Kerrys when it comes to Collins? Todd Collins played for the University of Michigan and was drafted in 1995. He has been a perennial backup QB, hanging around the league for 15 seasons (this will be his 16th) and only starting 20 games in his career.
The scary thing about being a backup QB? When you finally get in the game, it’s usually because the guys protecting you didn’t do a good enough job with the first guy. Good luck, Todd! I hope we never see you on the field, but I’m guessing we might be a little too familiar with you come midseason.
Chicago's best bet for a backup QB?
As if this came to a shock to any Bears fans, Jay Cutler was sacked FIVE TIMES in one half of a preseason game. Against the RAIDERS!! For the millionth time, it’s not a knock on the QB, but rather the complete lack of depth and talent around the QB… which came about because they traded for this specific QB!! It was an exercise in failed circular logic that was doomed from the start, and now we get to watch the results mercifully play out in front of our eyes this season.
Rather that sign veteran Todd Collins as a backup for Cutler, the Bears should have looked for a better option, like Usain Bolt, because it’s going to take world class speed behind center to avoid a weekly punishing this season. Prepare yourselves, Bears fans, the odds of the chosen one staying healthy for double digit games this year is looking bleak!
Knox - a pleasant surprise in the Cutler deal
Another season with Jay Cutler at the helm is quickly approaching, and what lies ahead demonstrates the point of this website more than ever. Most people believe Jay Cutler is talented. Most people are impressed with new offensive coordinator Mike Martz and his intricate schemes. Martz has a history of turning teams into big offensive clubs. Matt Forte seems healthy and Chester Taylor can only help the running back situation. The receivers and tight ends aren’t world beaters, but it’s been worse.
Yet… most prognosticators are picking the Bears to finish .500 or below. Once you get away from the overhyped local coverage, you can get a better gauge of public opinion, and it’s not good. Mike Lombardi of the NFL Network estimates 6 to 9 wins for Chicago. Mike and Mike in the Morning have the Bears penciled down for 5 or 6 wins. Everybody agrees that Minnesota and Green Bay are a full notch above the rest of the NFC North, so the Bears are already playing from behind in terms of talent.
I hope everyone is wrong. I hope I’m wrong, because I’d like to stay positive, but I just don’t see how the Bears can win their division. Let’s face it, the defense was bad last year, and unless Julius Peppers can clone himself a couple times, it doesn’t figure to get much better if Lovie is insistent on preaching a specific defensive scheme regardless of how it fits into the players’ strengths and weaknesses. Can you imagine Pat Riley telling the “Showtime” Lakers of the ’80s to “slow it down” just because he likes a slower, dirtier style of basketball? Would Bobby Cox tell Greg Maddux to try striking out more guys because all those groundouts are boring? Why didn’t some coach tell Wayne Gretzky and the Islanders to play more “dump and chase” because that’s what was en vogue at the time? You MUST match your coaching to your players’ skills, but that fact has been lost on Lovie Smith.
Back to Jay Cutler. I’m not a Cutler hater, but I’m hardly a Cutler lover in terms of believing that he is in the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks. One of his teammates said Cutler could be a top 3 QB in the NFL this year. Uhhh, so which one is he going to eclipse by December: Brees, Manning, or Brady? Puh-lease. As this site has always preached, Cutler is a decent quarterback who the Bears bet the farm on despite not having the pieces around him to succeed. Now they signed Martz, Taylor, Peppers, Harris, etc., but it is still FAR from enough to compete at a Super Bowl level, so my forever unanswered question is WHY DID THE BEARS TRADE FOR CUTLER AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR FUTURE?
The Bears are in the exact position I expected them to be in at this point – needing to sign and overpay free agents just to keep the team competitive since they sacrificed their high draft picks and their mediocre quarterback for Cutler, a mediocre quarterback. Every NFL expert (and non-expert) will tell you that all the offensive skill in the world is meaningless without a good offensive line. The Bears are severely lacking in that department, and O-lineman aren’t easy to snag in free agency, and when high draft picks weren’t available to develop the line, well… Chicago is left with the hodgepodge it has now in front of their savior, Jay Cutler. For Cutler’s sake, I hope he has been lifting and running in the offseason because he’s going to be fighting off potential sacks on a regular basis.
How do you feel about Cutler and the Bears this year? Sound off fans!
Mike Martz has nothing but praise for Jay Cutler (that always happens until the games start). According to a recent Sun-Times article, Martz said “He has that Kurt Warner awareness, if you will.” 1 We shall see….
Neil Hayes from the Chicago Sun-Times provided the ultimate in overanalysis by responding to readers on the accuracy of Jay Cutler’s throws in OTAs. You can read it here. You can find more questions from the Sun-Times story here.
ESPN’s Chicago Bears Blog lists Jay Cutler’s progress learning the new offense as the number 1 storyline for Bears minicamp. This is unofficially the 1 millionth story about the so called difficulties of an NFL system. Is any system really that complex, especially for people already ingrained in the game of football?!
Only a nimrod would devise a system so complicated that the users couldn’t figure it out. Not taking anything away from professional athletes, but a majority of them are in their occupation because of their athletic abilities. Mental ability can certainly separate the great players from the good players and make borderline players successful, but a high IQ Harvard grad who runs a 5.8 40-yard dash isn’t going to last a single day in minicamp despite the big brain.
In other words, Martz’s system can only be as complicated as the lowest common denominator. It’s safe to say that Vanderbilt grad Jay Cutler is not that guy. Sure, the quarterback has to know where everyone needs to be on every play while the receiver only cares about the receiver (for the most part), but it’s not rocket science! With a very long offseason with nothing to do but work out, film the occasional commercial, make the occasional charity visit, and study the new playbook, if Jay Cutler (or any QB for that matter) can’t figure it out by training camp, then he shouldn’t be an NFL quarterback anyway. Conversely, if Martz’s schemes are so complicated that an NFL QB can’t grasp the concept, then Martz shouldn’t be a coordinator.
My point? Both parties have had these jobs before, so suggesting that “learning a new system” is somehow as complicated as quantum physics is a complete non-story. What matters is if Cutler can throw it to the receiver in stride on a play. If the concern is if Cutler even KNOWS the play, then the Bears are done before the season even starts. Even I give Cutler a lot more credit than that.
I fully expect Cutler to have his playbooks memorized and to get comfortable with his receivers and linemen in camp. What will matter when the season starts is Cutler’s physical ability to make the plays he has memorized.
Mike Martz, the guy the Bears reluctantly hired after failing to land their personal choices, claims to like what he sees in Jay Cutler, according to this Sun-Times article. Duh. What else is he going to say?! As this site has always said, regardless of Cutler’s talent ceiling, the Bears are going to need to surround him with skilled players to succeed. The draft is irrelevant, so Forte, Taylor, Knox, and the other receivers and tight ends are going to have to be enough for Cutler, assuming the offensive line can keep him upright long enough to through in Martz’s schemes.
The schedule just came out, and even if Cutler is still standing late in the season, those last four weeks are a doozy – Patriots, Vikings, Jets, Packers. Gulp! Parity is the name of the game in the NFL, though, so you just never know.
It was one year ago today that the Chicago Bears made the deal for Jay Cutler, sacrificing the franchise’s future for an unproven quarterback with a strong arm and little in the way of talented receivers for which to throw.
So how do YOU think it has worked out so far? Personally, I don’t see any advancement toward a Super Bowl, and having Kyle Orton and those high draft picks back might have put Chicago in a better position to get to the next level. I want to hear what YOU think though, so sound off in the comments!
Olsen - not in Martz's plans?
Well, fans of Jay Cutler, you can’t blame the Bears for remaining stagnant this offseason. As fun as it might be to blame Cutler’s shortcomings on the lack of talent around him, the only way to change that without any high draft picks is through new coaching and free agency. This offseason, the Bears did as much as they could to address those issues.
Mike Martz gives Cutler the so-called “genius” offensive mind a star quarterback needs to get to the next level, or at least that’s the prevailing belief. Julius Peppers and his 9-figure contract certainly can’t hurt on the defensive end and should help increase the chance at a “W” for Cutler. Chicago fans better hope that Peppers’ deal doesn’t follow the same overpaid path of Alfonso Soriano on the Cubs. One bad monster contract can hamstring a franchise for years.
On Cutler’s side of the ball, Martz got a big blocking tight end to fit his schemes better than Greg Olsen. Lastly, Chester Taylor finally gives the Bears a solid second running back to complement Forte’s game and, more importantly, take a little pressure off Cutler and the passing game.
Did the offensive line get better? No. Did the options at wide receiver get better? No. Were those two of the most important needs this offseason? Yes. Still, you can only fill needs with what’s available, and last I checked, Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald weren’t free agents this year.
Things can always be better, but at some point, you just need to get on the field and win. This season, Jay Cutler should have a better chance to do that than last year. If he doesn’t get it done yet again, will you still consider him a franchise QB? Sound off and let me know. I’m curious as to how many years a player has to prove himself in a league where a career is usually less than a decade.
