Football is a team sport Morrissey.

It means a bona fide star would not have played poorly in the final three games last season, causing his team to miss the playoffs.

This comment is rediculous considering the Broncos defense was like swiss cheese in those last three games. 112 points against in three games….need I say more.

I’m not a big fan of his and disagree with a lot of what he normally writes, but I can’t see where he’s wrong here. He never says Cutler “is going to fail” or will never be the QB we hope he is. All he said, like Dungy, is there are some legitimate concerns about his leadership qualities and that part still has to be proven. I know the defense for the Broncos was bad last year but Cutler did throw more interceptions than touchdowns in those last three games. He’s not the only reason they lost, but all of us fans have elevated him to Superstar status, so think about the top QB’s in the league and how many of them would have had 3 bad games in a row at the end of a season when you had a 3 game lead with 3 to play? Again, to blame him completely would be wrong, but to ignore that would also be wrong when you trying to evaluate him and improve things he needs to work on. Let’s not forget that he has never been on a winning team in college or the pros. I wrote this in another post and it fits here as well. No one is saying he should have taken mediocre teams and made them National or Super Bowl champs, but someone of his ability, at the most important position on the team, you would think one of those teams would have at least been one game over .500. The Broncos, when he took them over as starter had come off of some pretty good years with Plummer, but they felt he couldn’t get them over the hump. Cutler did not improve their record.

Before anyone starts having a coronary, I’m not saying Plummer was better or that Cutler can’t achieve what we all hope for, I’m just saying I don’t want the Bears to bury their heads in the sand either. Let’s see how he reacts to much more intense media pressure than he’s ever faced before and as fans, let’s not overreact to anything he does, either positively or negatively. Let the guy play and develop. That’s how I interpreted the article.

not so much the broncos saw something they didn’t like making him tradeable, but more Cutler wanting to get off of the sinking ship that he perceives the Broncos captained by McDaniels to be. [it was not intentional but writing that last sentence makes me wonder if McDaniels in many ways wants to be the star/captain now that he is Head Coach and wanted to put Cutler the captain and leader of the team in his place].

Maybe there is something to be said about a player playing for his team no matter how bad the situation is, but the narrative in my head [because that is what i want it to be] is that McDaniels came is as a not it all prick (hate those guys) and Cutler used the trade speculation as an opportunity to get out of Dodge [and play for his favorite team / the best team ever…. kinda surprised more players haven’t done the same to don a bears uni].

Someone should mention to them that Orton didn’t exactly light it up down the stretch last year when it counted, throwing 4 TDs and 6 INTS but the team went 2-1 and just missed the playoffs. We needed OT to win those two games so it easily could have gone the other way.
My logic with this is, if you want to say Cutler isn’t good down the stretch or whatever, then the Bears are no worse off than when they had Orton and he was a solid starter.
So yeah, I’d take the more athletic, stronger-armed, better career completion % QB over a guy who can’t make all the throws.

He spoke of the “da Bears” Super Fan phrase with distaste and seemed to think that the “Monsters of the Midway” is a dead identity. Dunno where he’s coming from.

Not that he was necessarily wrong, but he probably could have handled the whole thing better. However, the fact is that he’s the best QB this team has had in at least 20 years, probably closer to 60. You don’t need to keep poking and prodding and trying to find fault with him. YOU GIVE HIM THE F***ING BALL AND RIDE HIM TO A CHAMPIONSHIP!!! Stop trying to tear him down before he even gets on the field in the name of “objective journalism.” You’re a damn hometown sports reporter, you’re not Edward Murrow.