Jay Cutler was a polarizing figure in Chicago Bears history. He is the franchise leader in every passing category. He was the last quarterback to win a playoff game for them. One would think he’d be more fondly remembered. Yet his standoffish personality and a love-hate relationship with fans made it difficult to fully embrace him during his eight seasons with the team.
Some people still love him. Others don’t. The same can be said of several former teammates. Yet one thing is for sure. Nobody can say the guy doesn’t have a heart. There are several stories over the years that have emerged about how kind and giving Cutler could be at times. Not just with his charity work either. When it came to teammates, he was also quite awesome.
Few knew that better than his backup quarterbacks.
He and Josh McCown became fast friends when they started working together in 2011 and that relationship only deepened over time. Jason Campbell and Jimmy Clausen also learned to like the Cutler, realizing his personality was less about being a jerk and more about being guarded. The best story though may belong to Matt Blanchard.
Remember him? A native of Lake Zurich, Illinois he made a name for himself at Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Bears signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2012 and he spent just over a year with the team. He and Cutler had a nice relationship, but the kid didn’t realize how serious it was until after he left in 2013. Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic had the details of what happened.
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Blanchard left the Bears in 2013 and joined Carolina. In the 2014 preseason, the Panthers played the Bills and Blanchard was 1-of-7 passing with an interception.
With the Bears playing the Bills in Week 1, Cutler happened to watch tape of that game. He sent Blanchard a text.
“I can’t remember the exact message, but the sentiment of the message was, ‘Hey, keep your head up. You can play. You’re a good quarterback,’” Blanchard said. “It was an encouraging message that he didn’t have to send.”
Jay Cutler could’ve been an icon in Chicago
It just seems like too many things conspired against him. Constant coaching changes from several different offensive coordinators to three different head coaches. Shaky pass protection for most of his time here and on brief instances of having legitimate weaponry. He compounded those problems by not handling himself better in front of the cameras. The unwillingness to open up to people made it difficult to relate to him, and as a result like him.
His gunslinger style that led to lots of interceptions at times didn’t help either. He never seemed to fully embrace trying to be that cerebral, calculating quarterback. Jay Cutler was going to do things his way. Perhaps that was part of his charm. Yet it was part of why he never quite managed to reach his full potential in Chicago. There was no one person to blame. The Bears and Cutler himself each made their contributions to the failure.
Now Chicago is hoping they’ve learned from those mistakes.
They’ve consistently added young talent to the offense, built a decent offensive line, and loaded the coaching staff with bright offensive minds. Headlined by the head coach himself. It’s hard not to wonder how things might’ve turned out for Cutler if he’d arrived just a few years later and had a chance to work with Matt Nagy. That would’ve been a fascinating combination. Sadly Bears fans will have to content themselves with the what-ifs.
