Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler benched for being Jay Cutler; entire Bears front office should be sacked

by Kent Sterling

Hating Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is easy.  He’s a petulant mope who appears to shrug and pout as often as Tom Brady drops f-bombs, Andrew Luck congratulates defensive players, and Peyton Manning yells “Omaha!”

But it’s not Cutler’s fault that he isn’t living up to his contract.  He didn’t offer himself $54 million guaranteed for three years work.  The Chicago Bears did that.  The supposedly smart guys who sit around conference tables bleating about draft boards, free agents, and how close they are to getting over the hump decided to throw insane money at Cutler.

Only elite quarterbacks should be paid elite money.

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When the Bears brain trust sat in a room in late December, 2013, and vetted the idea that Jay Cutler should be paid like an elite quarterback in 2014, 2015, and 2016, someone should have risen from his or her chair and demanded logic be shared among the hysterical and hopeful predictions.  Cutler might have done it himself if invited.

Cutler has never been anything more than an average quarterback.  He possesses a great arm, but the results of the work that arm has done through nine seasons have been mediocre at best.  Expecting greatness from a quarterback in his ninth year who has never shown it in his first eight is an unreasonable leap of faith – the kind of foolish hope that gets people fired – or should.

Live in hope, die in desperation.

No one in that conference room could have guessed that Cutler would lead the NFL after 14 games in both fumbles (12) and interceptions (18), or that the Bears would be 5-9 as a result, but a quarterback with parts of eight seasons as a starter without ever posting a passer rating of 90 or better is not suddenly going to evolve into an Aaron Rodgers, Manning, Brady, or Luck at the age of 31.

Cutler has been benched, but the stats (other than turnovers) have been on the high end of Cutler’s career range.  That means that the version of Cutler who is being benched is exactly what the Bears should have guessed they would get for their money.

Cutler’s 2014 passer rating is 89.5 – best he’s ever had.  Cutler’s pace for completions – best ever.   He has already thrown for more TDs than during any season in his career.  Completion percentage?  Highest in Cutler’s career.

Better that ever is what Cutler is providing, and his reward for it is a seat to watch Jimmy Clausen take over.

Only once has Cutler ever quarterbacked his team to the playoffs, so the Bears being eliminated from contention for the postseason shouldn’t be a surprise either.

Cutler is being held accountable for being exactly the same quarterback he has always been – exactly the quarterback the Bears should have known they were getting for their money.

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The Bears fans who showed up at Soldier Field Monday night booed mercilessly.  I hope at least a few of those angry fans directed their vitriol toward the brain trust who did this crazy deal in the first place.

For playing exactly the kind of football Cutler should be expected to play, he is out.  For that, Bears chairman George McCaskey should do a little benching of his own.  Anyone who didn’t stand on the table during a meeting to plead that the Bears not reward an average starting QB with $54 million for three years should be fired immediately – and with prejudice – because they don’t know that past is prologue.

Great doesn’t follow mediocre, not for the long haul.  That’s the first rule of management.  The Bears didn’t know or respect that.  That’s why the Bears suck, not because Cutler has been Cutler.