Jay Cutler Officially Released By The Bears, End Of A Confusing Era In Chicago

A predictable end to a perplexing era in Chicago. When the Bears traded for Jay Cutler the city filled with hope. A bright star in Denver fell into their laps thanks to Josh McDaniels and it seemed like the Bears had a franchise QB for the first time since Sid Luckman. After 8 up and down years, the Bears, Cutler, and the fans are all finally on the same page…they’re ready to turn it.

While obviously Jay Cutler certainly deserves his share of criticism for how things turned out in Chicago, I think he really was a victim of circumstances in a lot of ways. Three different head coaches and 6 six different offensive coordinators during his time here. It seemed just like every time the Bears were getting a grasp on a system and some cohesion offensively, everything was uprooted. It wasn’t just the sheer number of coordinators…it was the names and systems. Mike Martz, Ron Turner, Mike Tice, Trestman/Aaron Kromer, and Loaggins. Not exactly playing for Bill Walsh out there.

Yes, he threw crippling interceptions, and towards the end had a lot of injury issues, but you could also argue that he’s the best Bears QB in the Super Bowl era, and definitely the most talented. Franchise leader in passing yards, TDs, and QB rating, yet finished with a .500 record and just one playoff victory. The timing was just never right for the Bears with Cutler. The Bears couldn’t put a scheme or personnel around him in early in his career to capilalize on the tail end of those great Lovie Defenses, then as the offense started to get better with Forte, Marshall, Alshon, O-line, Gase, etc the defense fell apart.

Sometimes, grand plans just don’t work out. There isn’t a bad guy(except for the McCaskeys and the entire Bears front office) in this situation. Jay didn’t give the results we all hoped for when they traded for him right before the draft in 2009. Some of it is his fault, but he competed and it felt like the Bears at least had a chance when he was in the game because when he’s at his best he’s an electric, albeit, enegmatic, talent. Tough and talented dude with some serious flaws on some bad teams.

On to the Mike Glennon(Connor Shaw) era. SUPER BEARS, SUPER BOWL per Ronnie Woowoo

Never forget

PS: It also seems like Jay was polarizing in the locker room too. Brian Urlacher made it clear that he did NOT like Jay Cutler as his quarterback, but sounds like Kyle Long would go to war for the guy