Former Broncos GM says Bears finally are doing right by Jay Cutler

[Bearly]

Similar to those who cry "what jobs do all Jay's former OCs have now", I'd like to say "what job does Ted Sundquist have now?"

This article would make sense if Cutler was going into like his 3rd or 4th season, not his 9th. I LOL'd at the "Despite a Pro Bowl season by Cutler, Shanahan and Heimerdinger were fired after the 2008 season" comment, as if Cutler's complete collapse in 2008 played no part in the dismissal of Shanahan and his staff.

I think that D had a much bigger part.

 

[Jester]

Yes, me too Yoda, but at least we have hope.

The force be with you.

 

[Bearly]

But its kind of a circular argument. One, Lovie had better players on defense so the bonehead plays were limited. Two, with the lack of talent on offense and no offensive line, there isn't a whole lot of adjustments you can make through personnel or scheme changes. I thought Lovie and the offensive staff got as much production as possible from the Grossman/Orton years, TBH. Rex wasn't very good, but what was Lovie going to do...bench him? On the same token, the O-line was better in the Grossman/Orton years, too. I thought Martz's 2nd year had the Bears offense looking its best, but Cutler got hurt and Martz was run out of town.

With Lovie on board to run him out. Lovie led his sacrificial lambs to slaughter.

 

[Bearly]

Yes, me too Yoda, but at least we have hope.

The force be with you.

Happy for a needed change but yah, unsure I am.

 

[Teddy KGB]

I like some of what Emery has done so far but the first round picks need to start producing for me to consider him an unqualified success. Still, I have a lot more trust in Emery than Angelo - at least when you listen to Emery talk and explain things, he gives you the impression he sees the same team with the same holes that us fans at home do.

Trestman though - total wildcard. I think I have a rough idea now how the offense will operate, but can't be 100% sure, and this season is going to be a learning season when it comes to Trest.

 

[Bearly]

When cutler came aboard, JA assumed cutler would make everyone around him better like a brady, peyton, brees etc...what he did not notice was that all those teams had good protection and/or talent at the wr position. It was JA's philosophy that 5 bottom feeders could make a good oline as long as they gelled together and so that was the oline for the most part until JA heard whispers about his job security and then drafted carimi which would answer all the bears problems apparently.

Cutler is not the type that can elevate those around him to another level, he is a good qb that can be even better if given the tools to succeed and emery is finally giving him more options and actual protection. It may be too late for cutler to break all his bad habits he's built up over the years, lets hope trestman can really break through to cutler.

Not so much. They assumed that Tait would be there and he surprised them by retiring. Enter Omnifail, Chris Williams and Pace while playing a small school rook at RT. The line statrted going down when we lost Brown, then Miller, Tait and Garza from G to Center. That's all 5 and we haven't seen anyone play their positions as well as any individual in the 2006 group since they retired. Garza is still here but he's not younger and not the Kruetz of few years before he quit. Cutler didn't even have a Berrian let alone a MM until last year. Cutler probably did make those around him more successful but not necessarily look better.

 

[Warrior Spirit]

Former Broncos GM says Bears finally are doing right by Jay Cutler

It was time for the Denver Broncos to find the next John Elway, their next franchise quarterback. Several seasons of varied success with Brian Griese, Jake Plummer and others left them yearning for more.

The year was 2006.

Vince Young, Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler were the top three college quarterbacks. And although the Broncos were coming off an AFC Championship Game appearance with Plummer, their brass thought it was time to secure the next face of the franchise.

A three-way trade had moved the Broncos from 29th in the draft to 15th, and they decided they wanted to move up even more to snare a quarterback. It was a foregone conclusion the Tennessee Titans would take Young with the third pick, but the Broncos were content with Leinart or Cutler. They just had to get one of them.

After Leinart went 10th to the Arizona Cardinals, the Broncos swung a trade with the St. Louis Rams to move up to 11th. They took Cutler.

‘‘I personally was a Jay Cutler guy,’’ former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist said. ‘‘I liked his mobility. I liked his strength. I liked his ability to make plays off-schedule. I liked his presence in the pocket. I liked the fact that he was at Vanderbilt, which is an academic school. He was a smart guy.

‘‘I saw a guy with the tools that in our system, surrounded by guys like [then-head coach] Mike Shanahan and [then-assistant head coach] Mike Heimerdinger, would develop and grow and be the type that we were looking for.’’

It didn’t pan out.

Cutler’s career has taken plenty of turns since he was drafted. He has become a lightning rod for critics and even has been labeled a ‘‘coach killer’’ by some. And now he’s entering the most important season of his career. He has to win over new Bears coach Marc Trestman in a contract year.

How did it come to this?

Sundquist said the Broncos first ‘‘went astray’’ after deviating from their initial plan of sitting Cutler for his rookie season and putting him in for Plummer. Sundquist said Heimerdinger, who had rejoined Shanahan’s staff that season, ‘‘had a different opinion of what he wanted at the position.’’

In March 2008, Sundquist was fired as the Broncos’ GM. Despite a Pro Bowl season by Cutler, Shanahan and Heimerdinger were fired after the 2008 season. Josh McDaniels was named the Broncos’ new coach, an irreparable rift was created with Cutler after some trade talks and the franchise quarterback-to-be was traded to the Bears on April 2, 2009.

Three offensive coordinators and a head coach later in Chicago, there is still discussion about whether Cutler, 30, finally can be that franchise quarterback.

‘‘I know what’s happened in Chicago,’’ said Sundquist, who now runs the website TheFootballEducator.com. ‘‘I know it’s frustrating because you’ve got a tremendous talent there that should be producing at the level of the upper-echelon guys. And for various reasons, he hasn’t been able to do that. Some of [the reasons are] his, and some of them, he hasn’t had the weapons at times, he hasn’t had the protection at times.’’

Sundquist said he still believes in Cutler. He said those who incessantly criticize him for his demeanor simply don’t know him. He sees a player with untapped potential who hasn’t been helped.

‘‘If you look around at the great teams, all those factors come together to create an Aaron Rodgers, a Tom Brady or a Drew Brees,’’ Sundquist said. ‘‘You’ve got to have somebody over on the left side. You’ve got to have targets for him to throw to. If you leave out an ingredient, it can ripple and affect your quarterback.’’

Sound familiar?

All Bears GM Phil Emery has done since taking over is equip Cutler. He added receiver Brandon Marshall, fired coach Lovie Smith, hired Trestman and offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer and signed left tackle Jermon Bushrod and tight end Martellus Bennett.

‘‘It just didn’t seem like under Lovie that the emphasis was there to get [Cutler] the things that he needed to succeed,’’ Sundquist said. ‘‘And that’s just me and that may not be fair. Maybe they were trying to do everything they could. But at least this year, from the outside looking in, [Cutler] is the focal point.

‘‘From that perspective, I applaud the Bears because I think that’s what you have to do.’’

Sundquist said Cutler is the type of player ‘‘who needs a steady influence and a steady hand — a firm hand but also an understanding hand.’’ The hope is Trestman can be that.

Former MVP quarterback Rich Gannon described Trestman as part-disciplinarian, part-friend. He listens to his quarterbacks but demands a lot in return.

‘‘I always thought he saw the game through the eyes of the quarterback,’’ said Gannon, who worked with Trestman with the Raiders and Vikings. ‘‘He knows what buttons to push.’’

And they have to be pushed now.

‘‘Make-or-break year? Yeah, probably,’’ Sundquist said. ‘‘When [Emery] sits back at the end of the season and says, ‘Do I extend him? Is this the direction that we’re going to go for another couple of years?’ it will have a lot to do with how this particular formula of players and coaches ends up producing this year.’’

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/foot...rs-finally-are-doing-right-by-jay-cutler.html

Is this writer Special person? Talking like 2008 was a great year for them when they blew a 3 game first place lead with only 3 weeks to go in the season? You're damn right people were fired. What would you expect?

 

[1COBearsfan]

Shanahan was fired because he completely ignored the defensive side of the ball, not because the offense was scoring 40 points a game

 

[Gunzaan]

The guy traded up up twice in the first round to draft Cutler.. Of course he is going to make excuses for Cutler, it makes him look better - especially if he is still seeking employment (I don't know how old he is).

 

[FirstTimer]

Shanahan was fired because he completely ignored the defensive side of the ball, not because the offense was scoring 40 points a game

Cutler and the offense shit the bed down the stretch too.

 

[FirstTimer]

Where I will disagree with the former Broncos Gm is that the Bears didn't try and put guys around Cutler. They did. From day 1. They signed Orlando Pace right away, then you can look at the wasted draft picks on TE's, OL, WR's etc but that's not for lack of actual effort. I just think the Bears had two bad talent evaluators for the offensive side of the ball(Lovie/Angelo). Basically the ole A for effort F for execution type deal.

 

[Willis1524]

Where I will disagree with the former Broncos Gm is that the Bears didn't try and put guys around Cutler. They did. From day 1. They signed Orlando Pace right away. You can look at the wasted draft picks on TE's, OL, WR's etc but that's not for lack of actual effort. I just think the Bears had two bad talent evaluators for the offensive side of the ball. Basically the ole A for effort F for execution type deal.

I agree here. They did try, even if they failed. Hopefully the pieces are better now.

 

[1COBearsfan]

Cutler and the offense shit the bed down the stretch too.

I understand that. But (almost) any time an offense is scoring more than 30 points a game and losing the problem isn't on that side of the ball, usually. I know Cutler made his share of boneheaded plays but he also made his share of spectacular plays/throws too

 

[FirstTimer]

I understand that. But (almost) any time an offense is scoring more than 30 points a game and losing the problem isn't on that side of the ball, usually. I know Cutler made his share of boneheaded plays but he also made his share of spectacular plays/throws too

Those boneheaded plays though left a marginal defense out to dry too. That's always kind of been my issue with Cutler a lot of the time. He seems to have very low game awareness, even/especially with the Bears. It seems that even still at age 30 he hasn't grasped the entire idea of "throw it away and live to fight another day" thing. That's kind of another subject though. I'm not saying the blame was more Cutler's in 2008 or anything just that he played a decently large part in it as well.

 

[DaaBears]

It certainly didn't help that we had no 1st round draft picks the next two years to "build around Cutler". And we drafted offensive linemen early in the next years, they just didn't seem to work out. When you spend so much on 1 player, you kind of forfeit what else you can get. If you have a budget of $400 for a barbecue and spend $398 on a barbegue grill, that doesn't leave too much to buy hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, sausage and beers with.

 

[PrideisBears]

JA buys his grill but buys nasty bullshit products next year. Once he realizes his product sucks, he tries drenching them in hot sauce ( new coaches) but his hot sauce sucks too. So the expensive grill has to work with bad products all around because the cook sucks

 

[DC]

112-54.

I live in Denver and watched those too often judged last three games of 2008. The Broncs
Defense gave up 112 points. They averaged nearly 20 points a game and while that's not the greatest, it certainly isn't chopped liver.

Jay threw for over 800 yards. He had a few picks, but no "bad rex" games. Hell, he even ran for two tds.

If I recall correctly, it was the Bufallo game when they had three shots within the ten yard line. I remember watching that game at work. Two of Jays three passes were dropped tds. They win that game and they're in the playoffs, but they don't, and the Jay Cutler narrative begins.

 

[hyatt151]

When cutler came aboard, JA assumed cutler would make everyone around him better like a brady, peyton, brees etc...what he did not notice was that all those teams had good protection and/or talent at the wr position. It was JA's philosophy that 5 bottom feeders could make a good oline as long as they gelled together and so that was the oline for the most part until JA heard whispers about his job security and then drafted carimi which would answer all the bears problems apparently.

Cutler is not the type that can elevate those around him to another level, he is a good qb that can be even better if given the tools to succeed and emery is finally giving him more options and actual protection. It may be too late for cutler to break all his bad habits he's built up over the years, lets hope trestman can really break through to cutler.

He might have also overlooked the fact that those guys actually are good QB`S .

 

[botfly10]

Sorry man, not buying it. The coaching staff on the offense sucked and that was Lovie Smith. If what you say is true we wouldn't have had that POS WR coach Darryl Drake so many years. He was absolute garbage.

Maybe I worded my post like shit, but you just agreed with what I was tryin to say.

 

[botfly10]

But its kind of a circular argument. One, Lovie had better players on defense so the bonehead plays were limited. Two, with the lack of talent on offense and no offensive line, there isn't a whole lot of adjustments you can make through personnel or scheme changes. I thought Lovie and the offensive staff got as much production as possible from the Grossman/Orton years, TBH. Rex wasn't very good, but what was Lovie going to do...bench him? On the same token, the O-line was better in the Grossman/Orton years, too. I thought Martz's 2nd year had the Bears offense looking its best, but Cutler got hurt and Martz was run out of town.

Just sayin, if that shit was going on with the D, Lovie would damn well have identified the problem and corrected it, whatever that problem turned out to be.

No way in hell Lovie would have tolerated 9 seasons of subpar play from the D. Just would not have been acceptable. I am just pointing out the bizarre double standard is all.