Jay Cutler is what he is

Few quarterbacks have as flawless a performance as Aaron Rodgers did against the Chicago Bears. He didn't have a perfect passer rating, but his 151.2 on 22 of 28, 302 yards and four touchdowns was damn impressive. Most quarterbacks make the occasional bad decision, or deal with some on-field miscommunication, or have a ball tipped into the air for an interception, but when it's done by Jay Cutler it's made into something bigger.

I guess the silly, newly-mature-husband/father-better-decision-maker narrative is over for Cutler.  #Bears

— Dan Bernstein (@dan_bernstein) September 28, 2014

Earlier today in the Eagles vs the 49ers game, FOX lead play by play man Joe Buck remarked that for as good a game Rodgers had, Cutler had just as bad a game. Did he really? Cutler finished with an 82.5 passer rating which is just a bit below his career number. Cutler threw a ball he shouldn't have, it was tipped up and picked off. He threw another that his wide out ran the wrong route on. He had a few other bad throws, but it wasn't an epic fail of a game at the opposite spectrum of what Rodgers did.

Cutler finished with 256 yards and two touchdowns. After a quarter of the 2014 season, he's over 65% in completions, he's thrown 10 TDs to 4 interceptions, and he's over a thousand yards passing.

Could his interceptions be higher? Probably, but so could his completions. There have been some drops mixed in there by the Bears' pass catchers, but why are Jay's almost interceptions always amplified?

By my count, the 49ers dropped two easy interceptions and probably should have had a third on Culter...in the first half.

— Peter Bukowski (@BukoTime) September 27, 2014

I watch enough NFL football to see defensive backs and linebackers drop interceptions all the time. It's nothing new. If DBs and LBs had better hands, they'd be playing offense.

When Jay Cutler has a good game, people claim he's 'turning a corner' or 'finally figuring it out' and when he has a bad game it's 'same old Jay' and 'typical Cutler'. I really don't get it. Jay's capable of playing Pro Bowl level football and he's capable of blowing a game with a mistake. The same can be said for just about every quarterback in the NFL. There are only so many truly great quarterbacks that come around each generation.

Rodgers deserves to be in the same breath as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, but Jay Cutler never will be. Cutler is a middle of the pack QB with the arm talent to be much better.

Jay Cutler is what he is.

He has improved his decision making since he's been in Chicago, but to expect him to elevate his play to that of an elite quarterback is simply not realistic. We haven't seen a four interception game from him since September of 2012. His last three pick game was September of last year. But we also know that he's capable of going to that dark "don't care" place and chucking the ball to the other team at a head scratching pace.

If people aren't comparing him to the top quarterbacks in the game, they're taking him to task because of his paycheck. Look, Cutler is paid what the market dictates a veteran starting quarterback makes. If the Bears would have let him go, someone would have signed him to a deal with about $50 million guaranteed.

If anyone writes an article that slants pro-Cutler he's an apologist. If you write something that slants to the negative, you're a hater. The love/hate relationship Jay has with fans and media is unlike any other athlete that I can recall. I think the reason for that is most people either overrate him or they underrate him. Very few just accept him for what he is.

I'm a fan of his, but I'd like to see him play better. I know he has some issues in his game, but I also know he's good enough to win games. Jeff Hostetler, Mark Rypien, Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, Eli Manning, and Joe Flacco have Super Bowl rings. Eli has two rings, but he also has a career passer rating of 81.6. All it takes is to get hot at the right time, and Cutler is capable of getting hot.

We shared a Jay Cutler article from SB Nation earlier this week and the comment section blew up. It's so obvious how people feel about Cutler when commenting on him. Cutler could finish a game with 300 yards and 3 TDs and some will talk about the dropped interception he lucked out on. He could finish with a passer rating under 40 and some will blame it all on the pass protection.

As a Bears fan I'm probably guilty of the occasional overreaction myself. I can't help but get excited when Cutler pops off a phenomenal 4th quarter comeback, or get really pissed off when he throws the ball to a defensive lineman.

Cutler's good at times and he's bad at times. He occasionally throws an off balance pass that flutters for an interception and he'll sometimes throw the ball off his back foot with such velocity, that it's squeezes into a space where only his guy can get it. Not every Jay Cutler pass that makes us say "What are you doing!?" ends up being negative. Some of those OMG throws end up being awesome plays.

If as fans you only expect excellence, then be prepared for a lot of disappointment.

Jay may be a lot of things, but at the end of the day he is what he is.