Is Jay Cutler the Chicago Bears' most underrated player?

While checking out Twitter over lunch I came across the following from Pete Prisco, senior NFL columnist from CBS Sports.

Each teams most-underrated player. http://t.co/7rG6r17Mwz

— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) June 25, 2015

I'm always curious on how national writers view the Chicago Bears, so I clicked to see which current Bear Prisco thought was underrated.

There are currently 89 players on Chicago's offseason roster and if you were to give me 88 guesses on Prisco's pick, I never would have said Jay Cutler.

Chicago Bears
Quarterback Jay Cutler: Forget the contract. And just focus on the player. Yes, he makes a lot of mistakes, but wouldn't any quarterback if they threw 249 passes when trailing by 14 points or more like he did last season? Based on perception, you'd think he was garbage. Watch what he does this year in the Adam Gase offense.

Jay Cutler, underrated?

OK.

I understand his reasoning, I'm just surprised Prisco went there.

I'm optimistic that Cutler won't turn the ball over as much as last year. I also believe that the biggest thing that Gase's offense will do to help Cutler, is to cut down on his chances. Last year Cutler averaged 37.4 attempts in his 15 games played. The only time in his career he bettered that number was in 2008, when he averaged 38.5 passes per game as a Bronco. That was also his lone Pro Bowl season where he put up 4,526 yards passing. Cutler also threw 18 picks that year, but his sack percentage of 1.8% was best in the league.

When Gase was in Denver last year, he had Peyton Manning at 37.3 passing attempts per game. But that's Peyton Manning we're talking about. One of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Bears' head coach John Fox has already laid out the blueprint that the 2015 Chicago Bears will run the ball more than last year.

A commitment to the run and an improved defense will hopefully keep Cutler and the Bears from playing from behind as much. And then Jay can get back to being a middle of the road quarterback who is capable of greatness or suckiness on any given Sunday.

We'll have our Pick Your Most Underrated Bear of All Time 30 Day Challenge question coming up, so save those answers for that comment thread.

Also remember that ripping on Cutler in the thread is perfectly OK, as is defending one's stance on Cutler (whether it be positive or negative). Just don't intentionally try to troll people -- passive aggressive insults are the worst -- and don't make things personal.

Have fun out there!