The Jay Cutler era is all but over for the Chicago Bears. Word recently leaked that the team is shopping the 33-year old veteran, putting a cap on eight seasons of roller coaster football. Though Cutler will depart with almost every meaningful franchise passing record, his legacy will ultimately be defined by unfulfilled expectations. Namely just one playoff trip across that entire span. During which time Tom Brady reach three Super Bowls and won two of them.
Perhaps that’s a bit unfair to Jay since he clearly wasn’t playing in the Patriots system, but that’s an argument for another. The question moving forward is whether or not the Bears can trade him and, if not, when they plan to cut him. However, there is a rumbling around the league that Cutler may not let the situation play out.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, he may be looking towards life after football.
It’s seem hard to imagine. After all Jay will only be 34-years old in 2017. By rights he should have a few years left in the tank. Then again it’s hard to fault him either. Cutler hasn’t played a full season without a significant injury since 2009. He’s been sacked a lot, railroaded by the media and carries a reputation for being a coach killer. Besides that he’s already earned well over $100 million in his NFL career. It’s not about the money anymore.
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Naturally his goal would be to latch onto a team that can help him win a Super Bowl. Yet even that seems like a long shot. Thus far the two landing spots brought up the most are the San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets. Neither of those teams can be considered a quarterback away from contention at this point.
Thus his choices are play for a bad team and likely get beat up pretty bad or call it a career and go home to his highly attractive wife and family. From that perspective it’s easy to see him reaching such a decision.
