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!

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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, 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.

Chicago Bears 2010 schedule

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.

As much as I think the Mike Martz signing might be a disaster in Chicago, I can’t blame the Bears for the hire.  I don’t like when people complain if they don’t have a solution in place, so it’s hard to fault Chicago for the Martz hire since the alternatives weren’t any better.  If you are choosing sides in a pickup basketball game and Rodney McCray, Pete Myers, and Kyle Macy are the only guys left, you can’t choose Michael Jordan.

Despite the debacle in the hiring process, the fact remains that a Jeremy Bates or similar hire would have received a lot more backlash (who is this guy? what experience does he have? etc etc) than hiring a guy who won a Super Bowl.

The question that makes me nervous is whether Jay Cutler can adapt to him or not.  Kurt Warner was on the radio yesterday, saying that it’s important to be willing to change, even one’s mechanics, for a guy like Martz if you really feel he can make you a better player and make the offense better.  Why do I get nervous?  Because Cutler needs to put his faith in a new coach and trust that the coach knows what’s best.  So far with the Bears, that hasn’t been Cutler’s strength.

Martz

Well, at least Jay Cutler can’t blame his next offensive coordinator for his failings.  The Bears appeared to bend over backwards for Cutler, attempting to get an interview with his former QB coach Jeremy Bates, even though he had no experience as an NFL coordinator.  Then, they tried everyone else and failed to receive any interest until Mike Martz finally fell into Chicago’s lap.

Marinelli

I hate using phrases like “genius” or “mastermind” to describe professional coaches, because one is limited by the rules of the game and the talent on the field, but fans and talk shows hosts love to toss those words around when describing coaches like Martz.  The reality is that when his teams were talented (Rams), his record was good, and when his teams were not (Lions), his record was bad.  Thanks to a rumored dinner together, Jay Cutler and Mike Martz should be on the same page heading into the season.  From then on, it’s a crapshoot.  

As for the coaching behind Lovie, here’s a few of what the Bears are trotting out there:

• Rod Marinelli, after having led the Detroit Lions to a record setting 0-16 record two seasons ago, just before joining Chicago’s staff.
•  Mike Tice, former Vikings head coach who failed to maintain an air of discipline around a team best known for a boat party scandal.
• Mike Martz, successful head coach of the Rams and more recently the offensive coordinator for two miserable seasons with Marinelli’s Lions (including a 3-13 year in ’06) followed by a year in San Fran.

Tice

Guess who fired Martz from Detroit?  That’s right – Marinelli.  Then Rod followed it up with that 0-16 campaign, and now they all get to live happily ever after on Chicago’s staff.

Sigh.

Peyton Manning was named the NFL’s MVP.  Again.  On a positive note, Jay Cutler finished with the same amount of votes as Chris Johnson, the all-world running back from the Titans who seemingly set a record every time he touched a football near the end of the season.

NFL MVP Voting

Adam Schefter of ESPN has reported that the Bears are likely to retain Lovie Smith.  That was pretty much the assumption heading in to the news conference scheduled for later this afternoon anyway, but you can probably expect some other coaching changes within the organization even if Lovie is still around.

So if Ron Turner gets the boot, do you think this will help Cutler?  What else can the Bears do given their limited resources to help Jay Cutler and the offense?  If you don’t think trading Jay makes sense and want to complain that he didn’t have the resources (receivers/line/coaching) to be successful, now is your chance to sound off.  At some point, the QB has to be responsible for wins and losses, so what can the Bears do to get their “franchise” QB in a position where he is ultimately responsible?  Let’s hear it, Cutler lovers!