#2: Cutting Jay Cutler
Even now when it was so clear that Jay Cutler had started to regress as a starting quarterback, this wasn’t an easy decision. The man still had sway in the organization. He was the most productive quarterback in franchise history. A lot of people weren’t willing to let that go. Give it one more year. He can still be the guy they need him to be.
That the Bears were willing to cut that cord and start fresh, even at the risk of a regression at quarterback spoke volumes. It signaled that they were no longer accepting mediocre at that quarterback position. That’s what Cutler was, whether people like it or not. He was a giant step up from where the team was in the early 2000s, but going from atrocious to average can often create the illusion of a player being great. Chicago finally saw reality.