Bears Blitz

The Bears paid Jay Cutler but they’ll be fortunate to get their money’s worth this season unless something changes.

Cutler’s two-year contract extension pays him $20 million in bonuses and $30 million total new money while keeping him under contract through 2013.

It’s a wise move for the Bears because waiting to negotiate an extension during a possible uncapped 2010 NFL season might have sent Cutler’s demands skyrocketing. 

No one really knows the effect not having a salary cap will have—or really if that will even happen at this point—but speculation has it that richer teams will start bidding up contracts on some players.

It only makes sense that quarterback contracts would be even more astronomical than they are now, so the Bears may have saved themselves a great deal of cash.

The reason the Bears will be lucky to get their money’s worth from Cutler is he will be fortunate to finish this season in one piece.

Of course, no one with the Bears will admit it, but the single biggest obstacle to becoming a playoff contender is their sagging offensive line. 

“We’re 3-2 so the offensive line has done some good things,” coach Lovie Smith said. “They’ve contributed to all of that.”

“Coming off of a loss we’re not real pleased with anything we did (against Atlanta), starting with me. I’m not pleased with a lot of things I did (Sunday). We’ll go from there. But our offensive line has done some good things.”

Certainly one of those hasn’t been opening holes for a running game ranked 27th in the league at 89.8 yards a game.

“We’ve got to stay locked in the whole game,” guard Roberto Garza said. “We didn’t get the job done as an offense line. We’ve got to keep working on it.”

In the passing game, sack totals fail to do justice to the beating Cutler is being subjected to every game. The Bears rank ninth best at protecting the passer with 10 sacks, but this doesn’t tell the story of how many times Cutler has been drilled into the turf just after he gets rid of a pass.

A quarterback can only get hit so many times after passing before something bad happens, whether it’s a rotator cuff injury, knee injury or even just a broken finger caused by hitting a defensive player’s helmet on his follow-through.

Comparing Cutler to former Bear Kyle Orton has become a popular activity in the Chicago area in recent weeks—there is no comparison.

Orton stands in the pocket, surveys the field, fixes himself a sandwich, eats it, washes it down with a Coke and finally decides on a target for his pass. His running backs have holes to run through, so the threat of the run also keeps pressure off him.

The only thing keeping pass rushers off Cutler right now is the way he moves around in the pocket and the way he can throw hard from different arm angles while on the move. He buys his own time and completes passes.

Serious playoff teams have the ability to take over a game with their offensive line. The Bears certainly lack this right now.

The Bears have to do something to get better on the offensive line. Smith wouldn’t rule out benching Frank Omiyale, who is a tackle trying to play guard, in favor of 2008 starter Josh Beekman.

“We look at what gives us the best opportunity to win but I don’t foresee any major changes on the offensive line,” Smith said this week.

Asked if changing Beekman would be major, Smith said, “Would it be a major change? That would be a change. I don’t know about major.”

A major change would be blocking someone once in a while.

If the Bears offensive line doesn’t start doing it, their chances for getting their first playoff berth since the 2006 Super Bowl season will plunge straight downward—like Cutler.