Jay’s Ways – Cutler’s Journey to Chicago

MEET THE NEW BOSS – DIFFERENT THAN THE OLD BOSS

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CHICAGO BEARS

To win Super Bowl: +2000

To win the NFC: +1000

DENVER BRONCOS

To win Super Bowl: +3500

To win the AFC: +1800

They sure taught Jay Cutler "who’s boss," didn’t they?

Yep, and they virtually guaranteed themselves to be making vacation plans for January.

I don’t want to get too deep into the "soap opera" aspect of the Jay Cutler situation, since we did cover that quite a bit in last week. What I’d rather focus on is how this alters the playoff chances of the teams involved in the deal.

First, a quick mention about one team who DIDN’T make the deal. Is Jason Campbell going to get all hot and bothered because the Redskins talked about including him in a deal for Cutler? Just a thought. "I know Jim has been behind me and believes in me," Campbell told reporters. Sure, until a bad game or two, or the next opportunity to trade for another quarterback arises.

Chicago greatly improves its chances, contingent upon some complementary personnel acquisitions. Minnesota won the NFC North, as we know, but either the Bears or Packers could have come out on top with a break or two. It is pretty tightly bunched between the top three teams, and Chicago just afforded itself the break it may have needed.

One angle to explore here is the amount of pressure this is going to put on Bears coach Lovie Smith. Regardless of who the quarterback has been in Chicago, Smith’s offense has lacked imagination, and has found itself in serious need of playmakers. The Bears’ formula for success has been to play defense and perform just well enough running the ball and throwing short passes to get by. Yes, I grant you that with Rex Grossman under center this offense took more chances than it did with Orton, but the end result of taking all those chances was the whole "Good Rex/Bad Rex" syndrome that eventually led to "Exit Stage Left Rex."

With Cutler taking the snaps, however, the offense will potentially have a great deal more firepower. The question is, is Smith willing to unleash it, or is he just going to lapse into more cautiousness that is going to lead to more low-octane? That’s a legitimate think to ask, because I am of the firm belief that there are coaches in the NFL who are just going to crawl in the right lane, no matter how much horsepower they have under the hood.

Cutler can’t do it alone, and that is why Chicago needs support personnel. The acquisition of Orlando Pace is, at the very least, a nice symbolic gesture, and if he can play at a level that is even close to his Hall of Fame best, that is a big-time pickup. However, there is no guarantee that he is going to be healthy enough or sharp enough to accomplish that, and the Bears need to be prepared for that possibility.

It really helps if you can run the ball in the NFL, and the Bears are well fixed in that area, with the workhorse Matt Forte and some credible backups, including Kevin Jones, Garrett Wolfe and the "other" Adrian Peterson. But they can’t go through another season where Forte lead the team in receptions as well. Greg Olsen, the Miami alum, is going to be just fine as a tight end, but this corps of wideouts is not that threatening. Devin Hester is far less dangerous – to the Bears, that is – on offense than he is on defense, but I am skeptical about any offense where he is the #1 option on passing routes. Hester had more receiving yards than any other Bear (665), but the next wide receiver on the list was Rashied Davis, at 445. That has to change. Cutler had no go-to running back last year in Denver, but he had Brandon Marshall and a sensational rookie named Eddie Royal, who combined for over 2100 yards. By comparison, Chicago is less than pedestrian.

Can they acquire someone through one of their remaining draft picks, a trade or free agency? Their hopes to get to the NFL playoffs will hinge on it.

It is hard to tell how much pressure Josh McDaniels is really going to be under in Denver. If he had made a move with a player that flew in the face of what his owner wanted, that would be one thing, but Pat Bowlen apparently supports his man. If the Broncos tank (which at this point would mean anything from six wins downward), my feeling is that Bowlen would be too embarrassed to fire McDaniels because it would constitute a major error on HIS part. Trading Cutler may have also bought McDaniels some time, since there would be a built-in excuse for failure with the Broncos, I guess, who are now theoretically on a search for another "quarterback of the future."

As far as the fans and media are concerned, though, the heat is already on. McDaniels is one of a new generation of coaches who are perceived to be better investments because they are young, and, judging from what I can see, fashions himself a "guru" of sorts for quarterbacks. Good. Let’s see what he can do with either Kyle Orton or Chris Simms. Both of them have had their opportunities as starting quarterbacks in the NFL, and neither has developed a reputation as someone who has made the players around them better. I don’t know to what degree McDaniels would open things up for a guy like Orton. Kyle rang up big numbers at Purdue, but at least he’s got a potential All-Pro offensive tackle like Ryan Clady to help keep his uniform clean, and a running game that may just make a comeback, considering three of the top four RB’s from last year had more than five yards a carry (they still know how to block there), and is bound to be healthier (no back had more than 76 carries). There are bigger problems in Denver, like ZERO defense, and it’s not likely that additional draft picks (they have Chicago’s first and third-round choices) is going to remedy that right away.

Meanwhile, believe it or not, stay tuned for another potentially combustible situation between Cutler and his new employer. There is a past between Cutler and his new offensive coordinator, Ron Turner, the former coach at Illinois, who allegedly offered Cutler, an Indiana high school product, a scholarship eight years ago. Except he didn’t, I guess. "Jay committed but couldn’t visit in person right away due to basketball and when we visited, Mr. Turner started backpedaling and pulled Jay’s scholarship,” Jack Cutler, Jay’s father, told the Chicago Tribune. "That’s the way I remember it.”

Turner’s version is different, which is kind of worrisome. "It’s one of those mistakes you make. I never offered him. We never pulled anything, no. It never got that far."

I have the strong suspicion that if Turner and his new QB once again have trust issues, HE will be the one to go, not Cutler, whose route to Chicago was by a lucky break and represents the kind of opportunity that hasn’t presented itself to this franchise over the last couple of decades.

The same thing, I’d be willing to bet, applies to Lovie Smith.

You see, in some cases, the effect of "being the boss" can only take you so far. There are a lot of "bosses" out there, and they are more or less interchangeable, but there are few quarterbacks.