Bears Blitz

Cutler at Crossroads, Again, with New Bears Staff: Can He Choose the Right Path?

Published by Mike Freeman on August 3, 2015
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

There are many Jay Cutler stories, but this one, which happened when Cutler was in Denver, is one of the most Cutlerian of them all.

Stories seem to follow Cutler, and if the Bears are ever going to win with him, those narratives have to change. But can he change them?

The story, verified by a source with knowledge of the situation, goes like this:

Cutler decided to join one of the Denver area’s more prestigious country clubs. He and a group of friends played the golf course one day, and as might happen when a few young men get together, things got a little rowdy. The raucousness of the group continued in the clubhouse.

Cutler seemed to forget that he was at a country club. The other patrons might not have appreciated loud and obnoxious behavior. Or cared that he was the Broncos‘ starting quarterback.

The clubhouse manager asked Cutler to quiet down or leave. Cutler told the manager to be quiet (and that’s putting it nicely). Cutler also pulled the “I’m Jay Cutler” card.

The manager was unimpressed. A short time later, the country club’s general manager arrived, accompanied by a member of the sheriff’s office. The manager handed Cutler a check—essentially Cutler’s money back—and told him to never return.

Fast-forward to now. Cutler is in Chicago and a new staff has been evaluating him closely. One person familiar with the staff’s interaction with Cutler says there is still a feeling-out process. We don’t know much more than that.

Here we are: Cutler at the crossroads. Or maybe that should be, here we are again. Cutler was at the crossroads when he went to Chicago in 2009. Now, this isn’t so much a crossroads as it is a cliff, and Cutler is tiptoeing on the edge of it, needing to move beyond the stories of the past. But can he?

Is Cutler the same person he was at that country club? He’s a husband and father now, and kids change people. Make them grow up. At least, we hope.

Has he changed his play on the field? As Bears camp opens, that remains a question we’ve asked before, and here we are, asking yet again: Can Jay Cutler change from a highly talented and extremely careless quarterback to just the former?

Can Cutler change for the better? That is a question several coaching staffs have asked in the past and another is asking now.

I would think Cutler is a different person on and off the field from his Denver days, but, truth is, it’s hard to say. There are indications that he remains every bit as difficult in both aspects.

Here’s another Cutler story. He and Brandon Marshall, close when both were in Denver, had a massive falling-out in Chicago, as CSNChicago.com’s John Mullin reported, when they played together last season. Marshall went so far as to say on WMVP radio that he understood if the Bears had “buyer’s remorse” over Cutler’s contract.

CSNChicago reported Marshall wasn’t happy that after he suffered rib and lung injuries against Dallas last year, Cutler didn’t visit him in the hospital. A huge deal? Of course not, and Marshall has never been an easy teammate to have.

But most quarterbacks would go see their injured star receiver. There’s a component of that which isn’t just optics; it’s leadership. Marshall, in an attempt to dig the knife further in Cutler’s back, also said Kyle Orton was the best quarterback he ever played with. That’s just cold-blooded.

Cutler was diplomatic about Marshall after the receiver was traded to the Jets.

“No one really likes their ex-girlfriend just after a breakup,” Cutler told the NFL Network. “He’s fine and he’s been like that for as long as I’ve known him. He’s an incredible player, he did a lot for us here, it just didn’t work out. I could’ve been the guy that got shipped out of here as well.”

What Cutler has to do is become steady Cutler instead of Good J.C. and Bad J.C. Last season, as we almost always do, we saw both, but mostly bad. He did complete 66 percent of his passes with 28 touchdowns, but he also threw 18 interceptions and lost six fumbles. Those 24 turnovers led the NFL.

One problem for Cutler is that he’s in the same division with the best quarterback on the planet in Aaron Rodgers. Go back to last November, and in the first half against the Bears, we watched Rodgers throw for six touchdowns. How did Cutler respond? He had two first-half turnovers.

What this new coaching staff wants to know is, can Cutler change what he does? They will be making this evaluation all season. They want him to earn that massive paycheck.

As one scout told me, and as I’ve long believed, John Fox is a vastly underrated coach. Maybe the most underrated coach in the sport. (Whenever I state this, the haterade flows, but it’s true.) A big part of what Fox does is play smart football, relying on other teams to make mistakes, while his plays more intelligently.

This is not Cutler’s game and why he’ll have to change his past. I will also say this about Fox. Don’t think he won’t bench Cutler because of Cutler’s hefty contract. If Cutler has a rough start to the season, I think Fox would make a move, even if Jimmy Clausen or Trent Edwards is his best option. In that way, Fox is fearless.

Fox has taken a different approach to Cutler already. In the past, Bears management and coaches constantly praised Cutler this time of year, noting his offseason work. Fox hasn’t, as this report from ESPN’s Jeff Dickerson indicates.

“I got asked this 8,000 different ways. At the end of the day, we’re a performance-based business,” Fox told reporters. “No matter what we say about anybody, it’s going to come down to how we perform on Sundays or Mondays or whenever they line us up.”

Translation: What Cutler does in the offseason doesn’t matter. We’ve seen that movie before.

Just before training camp, Cutler said:

Fox isn’t going to sugarcoat anything. He is going tell you exactly how it is. What he expects from you. How things are going to go day to day. He wants guys who want to win Super Bowls. That’s all he wants. He doesn’t want guys that are in it for themselves or want to go to Pro Bowls. He’s got one thing in mind, and that’s the Super Bowl, and we have to find more guys like that.

It all sounds good, right? Great quote. Makes total sense. Except we’ve heard these types of things from Cutler before.