Bears, Cutler Committed For 2015 Season
Wednesday afternoon, the Chicago Bears held a press conference introducing newly signed DE/LB Pernell McPhee to the media. However, this was far from the main attraction. After the press conference concluded, the real press conference began when Bears GM, Ryan Pace, and head coach, John Fox, stepped up to the podium to answer questions about the lingering question of what’s to become with quarterback Jay Cutler.
Pace right off the bat told the members of the press, “We’re moving forward with Jay Cutler as our quarterback.” Rightfully they should, they are ‘handcuffed’ to Jay Cutler for at the very least to the 2015 season. Fox and Pace both have to find a way to make this work. Pace said that they evaluated Cutler on a personal stand point, and then took it a step further by evaluating Cutler’s game tapes going all the way back to his first start in Denver.
“There were a lot of people involved in the process of evaluating Jay,” Pace said, “we went back and watched a lot of film from not only last season, but the season before, back to him playing in Denver. It was an extensive evaluation of Jay from both getting to know him as a person and getting a feel for his play.”
This is exactly what Bears’ fans needed to hear. Going back to his playing days in Denver, what made Jay Cutler successful there was that he wasn’t required to do it all. They had a balanced running attack, they didn’t require Cutler to have 5 reads on every play. It was a much more contained and controlled game plan for him to perform under in Denver under Mike Shanahan. This formula produced Jay Cutler’s only 4,000+ yard passing season. This is the formula that Ryan Pace, John Fox and Adam Gase are working to incorporate into this year’s offense.
John Fox endorsed his quarterback by talking about what they learned about Cutler, “What I learned of him is his intelligence of the game, his willingness to work, and he is certainly capable of improving.” Fox said, “I think there is talent there, and we have every intention of exploring it. We have made a commitment and time will tell for all of us.”
Now, it’s hard for me to set my personal relationship with Jay Cutler aside from my analysis of the situation, but I am willing to go out on a limb and say that Jay Cutler will win 10-games this season as the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears. We will see Jay Cutler step into a leadership role, be a game manager of this offense, and Chicago will rely on winning as a whole. The weight of the Bears will not rest on Cutlers shoulders. They are going to resort back to what made him successful in Denver. That’s why they are watching all this tape, digging deep into the past find out what plays are successful for him. In what formations does he excel? What was the mix of run vs pass in the game plan? Does he perform better rolling out? Is he better in the 3-step drop or does he need 5-step drop? These are questions the Bears are finding answers for.
Knowing that this team is doing this much work to find solutions gives me the all the confidence in the world going forward that this is going to finally be the year we see the real Jay Cutler step back into the light. I know that he is quietly working hard behind closed doors with the coaching staff to develop a new playbook, to correct his mistakes, and to get better overall. That’s what he wants. Jay Cutler is coming off probably the worse year of his career. And he is going to handle this like any other ‘professional’ athlete would; by picking himself up off the ground and rising to the top. He’s not alone in this effort. Not only does he have the full support of the Bears coaching staff, but he has the full support of the locker room. The guys in that Bears locker room believe in Cutler. They know what he is capable of doing and they know that he is doing everything he can to correct mistakes and to improve himself, not only as their quarterback, but as a team leader as well.
