The Problem with Jay Cutler - Part One

You don’t need to play armchair psychologist to understand this: When everybody is telling you how great you are, when a team (like the Bears) swing an expensive deal to bring you in and tell their fans that you are the ‘missing piece’ that they’ve long been waiting for (like JA saying he’s waited forever for a franchise QB). . . well, then it’s awfully hard to then turn around and criticize you when and if need be.

Especially if your coaches either aren’t ‘mentally tough enough’ or if Cutler doesn’t have enough respect for them.

There’s no speculation here. It’s actually pretty obvious.

I said absolutely nothing (good or bad) about Cutler’s abilities and play, both in Chicago or in Denver.

Please read my response to Maelvampyre above.

All I was saying is that it’s awfully hard to criticize someone you’ve annointed as the next great QB in NFL history.

It’s like a guy who relentlessly pursues a stunning woman who he believes he really has no shot with. To his surprise one day she marries him.

It’s pretty hard to then go and tell that woman “Honey, you’re not the greatest cook in the world.”
Really. He’s probably going to choke down his dinner while reminding himself how lucky he is to have married such a stunning woman.

(For the record I like Cutler, am glad the Bears have him and agree with much of what you say).

That said, I was talking about something completely different. Please reread my post to understand why.

The Bears were never 4-6 last year.
Cutler has difficulty playing under pressure:
Cutler has been sacked on 4.9 percent of his dropbacks. There are 22 quarterbacks who have started the majority of their team’s games who have been sacked on a greater percentage. Among them are Favre, Rivers, McNabb, Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco. It is possible for a quarterback to avoid sacks but still get hit an inordinate amount of times. But that does not appear to be the case with Cutler either. In fact, Cutler has been hit at a lesser rate than the other quarterbacks in the NFC North — once every 7.1 attempts excluding sacks. Lions quarterbacks have been hit once every 6.6 attempts, Favre 6.3 and Rodgers 5.7. What we can determine is Cutler is not accustomed to all the pressure. Last year with the Broncos, he was sacked only 11 times. Thirty quarterbacks were sacked more.
So if Cutler’s performance has been inordinately affected by pressure, it may have more to do with Cutler than his blockers.
Remember that McDaniels didn’t want Cutler, because of important things like decision making and his track record of poorly protecting the football. Also, a high percentage of his passing yardage in 2008, came against defenses that were protecting leads and playing prevent defense schemes. This is similar to the game this year against the Cardinals. Enough with the excuses for Cutler. Orton did a great job in 2008 and played several games on a severely sprained ankle. He’s doing a great job in 2009 and has played hurt(finger/ankle) in over half of the Broncos’ games. Again, it’s time to stop making excuses for Cutler. He has played terrible this season.

My only point of comparison with regards to Favre is that both have cannons for arms and they both have a gunslinger mentality.

That would be it mainly.

And (unfortunately) you are correct. Just having people mention Jay Cutler and Jeff George in the same sentence isn’t good. Isn’t good at all.