Bears Expected To Keep Jay Cutler For The 2015 Season

According to Albert Breer of NFL Media, chances are the Bears will keep QB Jay Cutler on their roster for the 2015 season.

Breer mentions that although recent reports had said NFL teams were aware that Cutler was on the trading block, the Bears did not try to add him to the trade talks for WR Brandon Marshall.

John Fox assembled a “very Cutler-friendly staff” by hiring Adam Gase as offensive coordinator and bringing Dowell Loggains, who knows Cutler, as the team’s QBs coach.

Breer believes the Bears’ new coaching staff can work with Cutler for at least the time being.

It would take a “crazy offer” for Chicago to move on from, according to Breer.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media pointed out earlier in the week that the Bears will be forced to decide on Cutler’s future by next week when $10 million of his contract becomes fully guaranteed for the 2016 season.

Cutler, 31, still has another six years remaining on his seven-year, $126.7 million contract that included $54 million guaranteed.

As of now, Chicago has paid Cutler $22.5 million of the $38 million in guarantees included in his agreement.

According to OverTheCap.com, releasing Cutler outright would actually cost them cap space while creating a staggering $19.5 million in dead money. Even the idea of making Cutler a post-June 1 release wouldn’t add any cap space, so trading him is really their best option.

The best option for the Bears would be trade him, as they could free up $12.5 million in cap space and take on just $4 million in dead money.

The problem, of course, is the fact that teams likely view his contract as an albatross and wouldn’t be willing to part with draft compensation for him. A few months ago, reports said that the Bears may need to throw in a draft pick to actually trade him. That’s how bad of a situation this is for Chicago.

In 2014, Cutler completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 3,812 yards to go along with 28 touchdowns and 18 interceptions over the course of 15 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 32 quarterback out of 39 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding Cutler as the news is available.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. So let me see……..Cutler was awful last year with a very good receiver like Marshall on the team….now they give Marshall away…things will only be worse.

    • Maggie, you’re a useful idiot, a Gruberite led through the nose by the media and its meme. Brandon was a shell of himself last year with all his injuries. Wait, I’m talking to an Obama voter, an easily led Gruberite. Never mind, facts are your albatross.

      • Hey………I’d kill myself before I voted for Obama.

        Marshall still has some good football left in him. He was the Bears best receiver.

        • Neither Marshal or Alshon were “very good receivers” last year. They both battled through injuries all year.

          The Bears’ defense has been atrocious in recent years. Last season, the Bears’ ranked 31st
          in points allowed per game. The season before that, they lost a chance at winning the division due to a coverage breakdown on the game’s final play, a simple fade route on fourth and long that went uncovered.

          These defensive collapses are a huge reason for the Bears’ struggles as Cutler has to
          throw often to try to get the team back into a game. But for some reason,
          everyone wants to blame Cutler.

          Cutler threw 18 interceptions last season, often when the Bears were far behind in games and
          required desperate passes to stand a chance. That is the most picks Cutler has thrown in five years. He also threw for more than 3,800 yards and completed 66 percent of his passes, pretty darn good stats, while Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey battled through injuries all season. When a team keeps giving up 50 burgers a QB is forced to throw from behind…so the odds of interceptions go up because opposing teams know you have to throw the ball on almost every down to catch up.

          So if your argument is that Cutler has bad stats and Marshall’s were good (you wrote…Cutler was awful last year with a very good receiver like Marshall on the team), then that’s
          just wrong. Cutler’s stats have been pretty good in the midst of some pretty awful years for the Bears. Don’t forget a lot of their woes have to do with the defense. Cutler also had put up with four different offensive coordinators, two head coaches and two GMs in six years with the Bears.

          The only real criticism directed towards Cutler exists on a personal level. The interception
          angle is just cover to fool the useful idiots. Everything else is not nearly significant enough to have that many people complain.

          The Cutler bashing is a media meme that the easily led have latched onto, to so as to sound self-important. Every pick Cutler throws is over analyzed while Brady’s, Brees and Wilson’s are just “warriors trying to will their teams to a win.”

          It’s disgusting how the media has made Cutler, Grossman, Orton (until he left
          Chicago) their personal whipping boys.

          Brandon is a much older version of Alshon. Having two possession recievers doesn’t help the Bears as it allows defense to stack their coverage closer to the line of scrimmage.

          In place of Marshall the Bears need a speed receiver that can take the top off the coverage, which will allow more of the underneath passing game to flourish as defenses have to play a a deeper scheme to cover the speed burner.

          The below link gives a pretty good assessment of why Brandon leaving is not such a bad idea. Go through all 7 slides.

          http://sportsmockery.com/2015/03/why-the-bears-are-better-off-without-brandon-marshall/

          The Obama comment was because, just like Gruber and Obama knowing the stupidity and malleability of their own constituency, the media treats the Chicago fan the same way.

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