Where the Jay Cutler era has gone wrong

[BroncosDivision]

10/31/16 | ESPN
By Jeff Dickerson

Jay Cutler’s arrival in Chicago was greeted with fanfare typically reserved for sports royalty, but if this is his last season with the Bears, his exit will resemble that of a journeyman quarterback headed to his third team.

What went wrong?

ESPN.com interviewed a former general manager, head coach and offensive coordinator along with analysts and a former Cutler teammate to discuss why a quarterback who holds franchise records for passing yards and touchdowns is expected by many to be released after the season when his guaranteed money comes off the books. And he’s expected to be released despite the fact the Bears have no heir apparent for the most important position on the roster.

Rotating offensive coordinators

“All I can go by is what he did with me in Denver, and how he played and how he handled himself -- and you just say, ‘Holy cow!’ and you are kind of surprised it didn’t work out for whatever reasons,” said Mike Shanahan, who coached Cutler from 2006-08 in Denver. “The obvious one is the turnover in coordinators. You are learning a different scheme and a different terminology every time. That is tough on any quarterback.”

But with Cutler, it seems that every theory produces a counter-theory.

Full article:

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago-bears/post/_/id/4704076/jay-cutlers-complicated-legacy-defined-by-playoff-drought

[CoryWinget81]

How the hell did the Bears end up with Jeff George at QB twice?

[InsaneBlaze23]

His problem is he doesn't have heart of drive. He bails on games and stop caring.

How long has he been out with a hurt thumb? Favre played with a broken thumb, on the day his dad died and dropped 40+ on the Raiders.

Even Romo tries to play hurt. But not Jay, he breaks a nail he needs a couple weeks off.

[AC1]

His problem is he doesn't have heart of drive. He bails on games and stop caring.

How long has he been out with a hurt thumb? Favre played with a broken thumb, on the day his dad died and dropped 40+ on the Raiders.

Even Romo tries to play hurt. But not Jay, he breaks a nail he needs a couple weeks off.

That is the worst narrative on Cutler. He is arguably the toughest QB in the league. His problem has always been ball security and offensive consistency. He's killing the best defense in the league tonight.

[-Rod-]

Regardless of what you think of Cutler, it makes no sense to switch coordinators so often like the Bears did. It's hard to build anything on offense when players are not allowed to grow in a system. 2009: Ron Turner. 2010-2011: Mike Martz. 2012: Mike Tice. 2013-2014: Aaron Kromer (Marc Trestman's system). 2015: Adam Gase. 2016: Dowell Loggains. 6 different coordinators in 8 seasons. That's absurd. Paxton Lynch is lucky to be in a situation where he will be able to learn Kubiak's system fully. Imagine Lynch's development if he had to learn 6 offenses in 8 seasons. I guess there would not be much development at all.

[broncoslover115]

Regardless of what you think of Cutler, it makes no sense to switch coordinators so often like the Bears did. It's hard to build anything on offense when players are not allowed to grow in a system. 2009: Ron Turner. 2010-2011: Mike Martz. 2012: Mike Tice. 2013-2014: Aaron Kromer (Marc Trestman's system). 2015: Adam Gase. 2016: Dowell Loggains. 6 different coordinators in 8 seasons. That's absurd. Paxton Lynch is lucky to be in a situation where he will be able to learn Kubiak's system fully. Imagine Lynch's development if he had to learn 6 offenses in 8 seasons. I guess there would not be much development at all.

Yeah, that would be hard on any QB. It was nice to see Jay have a good game last night.

[CoryWinget81]

That is the worst narrative on Cutler. He is arguably the toughest QB in the league. His problem has always been ball security and offensive consistency. He's killing the best defense in the league tonight.

Didn't realize the Broncos played twice this week.

[broncoslover115]

Didn't realize the Broncos played twice this week.

Haha, that's exactly what I thought. Good catch Cory. :thumb:

[CoryWinget81]

Haha, that's exactly what I thought. Good catch Cory. :thumb:

Everybody is on the Vikings bandwagon, well were, saying their D is the "the best D in the league". I'm sure someone will start rattling off stats but I don't believe it. The Broncos D takes over games and scores where the Vikings D looks dead in the water if their offense can't stay on the field.

[Spice 1]

[Bronco51]

Everybody is on the Vikings bandwagon, well were, saying their D is the "the best D in the league". I'm sure someone will start rattling off stats but I don't believe it. The Broncos D takes over games and scores where the Vikings D looks dead in the water if their offense can't stay on the field.

Exactly. And you can't be considered elite if you can't get Cutler to throw you at least one pick.

[AC1]

Didn't realize the Broncos played twice this week.

Broncos defense is allowing 17 points per game
Vikings defense is allowing 14.9 points per game

Regardless, you missed the point of the post entirely.

[AC1]

Regardless of what you think of Cutler, it makes no sense to switch coordinators so often like the Bears did. It's hard to build anything on offense when players are not allowed to grow in a system. 2009: Ron Turner. 2010-2011: Mike Martz. 2012: Mike Tice. 2013-2014: Aaron Kromer (Marc Trestman's system). 2015: Adam Gase. 2016: Dowell Loggains. 6 different coordinators in 8 seasons. That's absurd. Paxton Lynch is lucky to be in a situation where he will be able to learn Kubiak's system fully. Imagine Lynch's development if he had to learn 6 offenses in 8 seasons. I guess there would not be much development at all.

Couldn't agree more. Despite the constant churn of offensive systems, he has still done reasonably well when paired with coordinators that knew what they were doing (Shanahan, Martz and Gase). Of the guys he failed with (Turner, Tice and Trestman), only Trestman was hired by another team as an OC, only to get fired after he had his predictable second season unraveling.

Look at Alex Smith, another hugely underrated QB, is another example of this. In the 6 years before Harbaugh arrived in SF, he never crossed a passer rating of 85 (despite Smith being the kind of conservative QB that usually would be associated with high passer ratings). In the next 5 years playing for Harbaugh and then Andy Reid (both run a WCO) his lowest passer rating is 89.

I do hope the same thing does not happen to Paxton Lynch but given that Elways is around, I highly doubt that happens. Of course, if Elway was around in 2009 we never trade Cutler.

[// / yardo]

I'll always maintain that the resurgence of Shanahan and the success of Cutler went hand in hand. The minute that relationship was severed was the minute those two would never become relevant again. And if it hadn't been for the resurgence of another QB tandem in Elway and Manning the Denver Broncos may have suffered the same fate. It's almost poetic.

I feel for Cutler though. Shanahan was probably the only coach that could harness Cutler's capacity as a football player. I don't think he'll ever put up the numbers he did with ole Mike. And maybe that's why he struggles with OC's. They're not Shanahan. They don't validate his sense of entitlement nor his condescending demeanor. Shanahan had kid gloves for Jay.

SMILE Jay. Show some emotion. LOL! Maybe Jay's sadness is a lonely football heart longing for the football QB/Coach relationship that never was and never will be. Maybe he feels at fault for the one that got away. The fate of the only coach that truly believed in him was set in stone after a loss to the one QB that hates him the most: Phillip Rivers. Beat Rivers and the Chargers and the trajectory of your career is completely different.

[YangDaniel027]

There was a good article on Cutler that I read a while back that I think does a good job of objectively assessing the situation. When I have time I'll try to dig it up but the point of the article was that Cutler was never really able to fully develop before being shipped off to Chicago as a franchise quarterback.

I'll never be able to get over that pouty face of his, but at the same time I do kind of feel for him too.