BuffaloBill Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 I am out of town though in Chicago Cutler is generally liked. Amazing they got it done this fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Blizzard Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 @kfishbain Jay Cutler has signed a 7-year deal with the Bears. Yay! That's one less rumour to live with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SACTOBILLSFAN Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 I live in Chicago so I've been absorbing the hilarity that is Bears fans and their crazy range of opinions on Cutler. Very smart move by him I would say. I was thinking he already hit the pinnacle of his career and was going to start on the downside. If this is a step down, it is about as small of a step as you can take. I predict the Bears will ultimately regret this move within a couple of years. But who knows? He's only 30 and Trestman and Emery (the GM) believe in him and I would argue that when he was in there is was the best season of his career. This will be the second time in his career in the same offense and an offense he looked good executing, so I think he will only get better as he spends more time learning the offense. It's basically a 3 year deal at $18m per when it comes to Chicago's financial obligations and there isn't anyone on the market better than him, so I don't think they'll regret it at all. He's not elite but he's a mid tier QB and that's the going rate. Will he live for 7 years playing behind the Bears o-line? I figured they might re-sign him, but not for that long, maybe a couple of seasons until they can prove he is able to carry the offence The Bears offensive line was much better this season after they actually invested 2 picks and a free agent pickup and they'll only get better playing together for another year. I will eat crow on this one. I predicted that the Bears will choose to not retain him. The contract terms are still pending but the fact that they kept him stuns me. He is 1-8 against Green Bay !! This is philosophically equivalent of the Pats* dominating the Bills for the past decade. If the hopes are to win the division, then this simply won't do. Anyway, I was wrong. He had Green Bay beat last week until Julius Pepper fell on his face and Chris Conte covered an invisible receiver in the flat allowing Cobb to run free. Also, their rookie head coach cost them 2 games with bad game management, and had they won the just one of the two games (2nd game against Minnesota and the Green Bay game last week) they're in the playoffs. Yet it wasn't enough to carry Cutler who's defenses and special teams were ranked number 1 followed by years where they were top 4. The Bears had unbelievably bad offensive coordinators and they tried to make Hester a #1 WR and Kellen Davis was a #1 TE. With this new offense and weapons he had his best season by far. so they are keeping a 30 year old corner on a horrible defense and a dime a dozen lineman on a brutal offensive line Slausen is better than average and I'll bet its a cheap contract. If they really do switch to a 3-4 defense then the Jennings signing makes less sense because he's definitely a zone player and a 3-4 puts corners in man coverage more often than not. Fair enough. At risk sounding like a broken record - a lot was invested for and around him on the O. Yet he has under-performed. 4th down with the game on the line, most would choose Rodgers over Cutler as their QB. And until he starts winning against a good division rival, he will be fighting for a Wild Card spot always instead of being in control of the division. Depending on how much they are paying him (possibly a front end loaded $17 MM per year), the Bears have locked their own fate for the forseeable future Comparing Rodgers to Cutler isn't fair because Cutler isn't in Rodgers' league. Anyone who says they'd take Cutler over Rodgers is lying. Cutler now has 3 years to prove that he can put up the points to beat the Packers. I think if you listened to Trestman or emery in the past 6-8 weeks I would say this wasn't surprising. McCown is a 34 year old career backup and you're not going to risk wasting the rest of Marshall's prime and Trestman's only shot at being an NFL head coach on a rookie sitting behind a guy that's proven he's a journeyman with a much larger sample size prior to his 4 or 5 game hot streak this year. Honestly I think this was the only logical move the Bears could make. Go Bills!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reports Jay Cutler's seven-year deal is worth $126 million, and includes $54 million guaranteed. so 18m per (ie a little behind that ELITE guys, but with the extra year the total dollars are right there. 54m sounds like essentially the first 3 years guaranteed and then probably a situation with a lot of flexibility after that. by the 5th year, the signing bonus has totally been accounted for even, so unless it has a weird structure the last two years will likely amount to team options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobobonators Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 The Chicago Bears are really dumb. If I was a fan I would be furious Lol. What do you propose they do instead??? Not sign cutler and go with who at QB in 2014 2015 2016, etc? Mark Sanchez? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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