Cutting Jay Cutler: Chicago Bears Would Be Complete Morons to Listen to Media, Fans

By Brian Neal @brianneal23 on December 27, 2014

“Jay Cutler is having such a pitiful season.”

“The Chicago Bears need to get rid of Jay Cutler.”

If you live in or near Chicago, or have listened to any talking head on TV or the radio, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone not say something similar to the two statements above when the Bears or Cutler are brought up as the topic of discussion. And that’s how it’s been for years.

Now, would you like to know why? If you’re wondering, it’s not because of the interceptions.

It’s because Cutler doesn’t like the media, or at least did not the first six or seven years of his careers. He wasn’t friendly with them. He didn’t joke around. He didn’t smile and wave at the camera or say the right thing all the time. And in return, as the media will do, they tarnished his image at every chance. Every time he was upset on the field, they showed it all over. Every time he didn’t give them an answer they liked, they plastered it in a headline. Every time he turned over the ball and the Bears didn’t win a game, it was, again, plastered in a headline.

All of that led to a poor image of the QB as far as his talent went — even though they should be unrelated for the most part — and it spread to the fans like wildfire, especially when he was first traded to the Bears for several high draft picks and then proceeded to lead the league in interceptions with 26.

Again, Cutler is under that same kind of heat, despite having a much friendlier and stronger relationship with the media these days, as he’s been more professional with them, has his own radio show and hasn’t had the same outbursts on the field (even though Tom Brady is called a true competitor when he does the same exact things). Now, sure, it comes with the territory when you have 18 interceptions and six fumbles lost in 14 games. And, of course, the high expectations for the Bears this year didn’t help, but are fans and the media right to point the finger at Cutler and say he’s the one who should be gone?

How many times has the Bears’ defense given up over 30 points this season?

Hint: it’s seven.

It’s pretty hard to try and win games like that without ever forcing anything

How many times has Marc Trestman completely and utterly abandoned the run game?

Hint: it’s 10 (yes, less than 25 rush attempts in 10 of 15 games).

It’s pretty hard to never make any mistakes at all when there’s no semblance of a running game. Is it all Trestman’s fault that they don’t have a run game? No, Phil Emery can be blamed for only having two above-average offensive linemen (Matt Slauson and Kyle Long), and one was out almost the entire season.

How many times has a receiver ran a wrong route or dropped a pass that led to an interception?

Hint: I’m not 100 percent sure because I haven’t gone back and rewatched every INT Cutler has thrown this year, but I can recall at least two at the end of the game or half that came on Hail Marys, three that Martellus Bennett or Santonio Holmes ran the wrong route on and one that Bennett flat-out dropped and the defender caught it off the drop. There are six right there that can’t really be put on Cutler.

And now, I’d like to get to the true crux of the matter: Jay Cutler isn’t a bad QB. He may have led the league in interceptions through 14 games with 18, but he was also fifth in dropbacks and sacked the eighth most times. The Bears, as a team, have the fourth least amount of rushing attempts in the league at 22.3 per game (despite averaging 4.0 YPC) while passing 38.2 times per game. That lack of balance falls squarely on Trestman, which puts his QB in bad situations every game.

Despite all of those things against him, through the first 14 games of the season, he was still seventh in the league in both touchdowns and completion percentage, with 28 and 66.2 percent, respectively, and has his highest passer rating of his career at 89.6.

What all of that means is, the Bears best not listen to the media or fans when it comes to Cutler’s future with the team. Not only is his contract too great to eat the next two years, but he’s not the reason the Bears sucked in 2014 either.