A View from a Bears Fan
Do you remember Friday, April 3rd 2009? Just a regular day for most, but for Chicago Bears fans, it was Christmas Eve come early, because on that day the NFL Gods decreed that Chicago was to get a franchise QB. First off, you have to realize that the Bears have never had a franchise QB since the Red Grange/Sid Luckman days (Jim McMahon was the closest but injuries derailed his potential HOF career).

The franchise QB that will soon be donning the Bears blue and orange was Jay Cutler, the young Pro-Bowl QB from the Denver Broncos. You might remember he got into a very public squabble with his new incoming head coach (Josh Mc Daniels) and wanted a change of scenery. During this war of words, most other teams with quarterback troubles were chomping at the bit trying to package players or draft picks to get into the Cutler Sweepstakes. Denver fans were in an uproar; their young gun-slinging QB was on the move before Mc Daniels even fully took control of the team. He angered the loyal Bronco fan base by replacing the face of the team prior to the start of the season. Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was the most vocal about his pursuit of Cutler, and there were other rumors linked to the Titans, Buccaneers, and Lions, but the longest of long shots was the Bears.

While watching ESPN on April 3rd, and reading the bottom highlight scroll I saw the news that the Denver Broncos and the Chicago Bears had agreed to a trade where Jay Cutler and a 5th round draft pick were headed to the Bears in exchange for two 1st round picks, a third round pick and QB Kyle Orton….holy crap, we got a real QB??? Stunned for a second, I immediately jumped online to see what was going on. Was this just more speculation, or was this a done deal? Wow, we finally got a real QB to lead the team.

Flash forward to today, Dec 15th; the Bears are at 5-8 and are out of playoff contention sealed with a sphincter ripping loss on Sunday to the mediocre Packers at Soldier Field. Looking for a ray of hope in the midst of all the CutIer bashing (examples: he is a fraud, he is the new version of Jeff George, Orton is better, etc…) I wanted to look back at his career stats, and not just this years league leading 22 interceptions and the 5-8 win/loss record. Since he is young, only 26, and considered to be a franchise QB, I really wanted to see how his numbers stack up with some of the best franchise QB’s to play the game. I guess I wasn’t the only one that wondered this, as I found a great breakdown comparing Cutlers numbers thru his first 4 years and those of the best QB’s to ever play this game (Young, Montana, Kelly, Brady, Manning, Favre all HOF’s). I was not only surprised I was encouraged. Finally, a flicker of hope in this dismal season.

Here are Cutlers splits for his first 4 years in the NFL:
Year WinPct Cmp% Yds TD TD% Int Int% Rating
Average .433 61.8 3011.8 18.3 4.8 14.8 3.6 84.5

Here are the avg. splits of Young, Montana, Kelly, Brady, Manning, and Favre in their first 4 years:
Average .584 60.7 3188.6 21.8 4.8 14.2 3.2 85.2

Looking at those numbers it helped to cement that there is hell of a player here. Yes, Cutler has a lower winning percentage and a few less touchdowns but everything else is spot on. You have to remember that Peyton Manning (58 INTS thru his first 3 years) and Brett Favre (51 INTS thru his first 3 years) both struggled early and needed time and a talented team around them to succeed. This is where the problem lies; the Bears need a competent Offensive Coordinator, a new Head Coach and GM, a new Offensive Line, and a go-to receiver that is over 6’2 (I’m not asking for much right? It is Christmas time and I was a pretty good boy this year, Santa).

What I’m really saying is that I still like the trade, especially when you factor in the other draft picks (we got Johnny Knox with Denver’s 5thround pick and the kid is going to be a stud, Denver selected LB Robert Ayers with the Bears acquired 2009 first round pick…the real kicker of this trade will be this year’s pick as the Bears’ record assures a top 15 pick…c’mon Denver, your due to blow this pick on another crappy D-lineman like you used to). All I ask is that you give Cutler some time and teammates to help him succeed, after that, we can all look back and assess this trade in its entirety two years from now when all is said and done.

- Jeff Powers

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Tags | Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Jay Cutler