Should He Stay, or Should He Go?

The Chicago Bears, are in the midst of one of the more difficult off seasons, that they have faced in some time. Word has been that the Bears, no longer view Jay Cutler, as a viable option moving forward with at the quarterback position. He has had an up and down tenure in Chicago, with an overall record of 51-51, tossing for 154 touchdowns, and 103 picks in his 8 seasons in the windy city. I can admit that he hasn't lived up to expectations, due to his own doing in some aspects, but this has been a man, that has taken a beating over these last 8 seasons , with the Bear offensive line never ranking better than 20th during his tenure with the Bears. When he first was brought in, Chicago still had a top 10 defense led by Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, and Charles Tillman, paired with a great special teams unit, coached by Dave Toub, and led by Devin Hester. The offense was lacking play makers outside of Matt Forte, but Cutler, did a lot of winning in that time frame from 2009-2013, posting records of 7-9(Urlacher broke wrist week one) 11-5, hosted the NFC Championship game, 7-3(Broke Thumb week 11), 10-6 (missed playoffs), 8-8*(Had the packers beat 28-24, before Rodgers had his first hail Mary on 4th 8th with 24 seconds left that gave the Pack the North Crown and the playoff spot due to a blown assignment from Chris Conte). The years of 2014-2016 have been less kind to the Bears, and Cutler, with these being some of the darkest times at Halas Hall.

This is a player you can win with, and not because of, and that's fine! There isn't enough Tom Brady's or Aaron Rodgers in the league, but the Bears don't need a QB like to win, case and point 2010, the Bears were one half away from going to the Super Bowl with Jay leading them. As i mentioned earlier, he was winning when he had a good defense and special teams, and no play-makers, but when he got Brandon Marshall, Bennett, and Alshon Jeffery, the Bears defense suddenly plummeted into some of the worst Bear defense's in the history of such a storied franchise. The 2013-2016 Bear defense's have been so bad, that it is hard to win when your defense gives up 50 burgers in back to back games. This team is finally being built right, with a stud interior o line led by Josh Sitton, Cody Whitehair, and Kyle Long, blocking for a true workhorse in Jordan Howard, and with a Defense that is a play maker away on the back end from being back to the Monsters of the Midway.

His teammates love him, with Kyle Long, and Alshon Jeffery both being on the record of saying how much Jay means to them, and to the Bears. These are two of the biggest stars on the team, that routinely stick up for him, and try to change peoples opinions on him. He is one of the toughest Quarterbacks, in the game shrugging off some of the biggest hits, and coming back early from almost every injury he has ever had. But I think some of his toughest plays, are on two QB scrambles, where he initiated the the hit on the DB's, and left them wondering what had hit them. With one being for a first down in 2013 against the Steeler's, with Jay hitting safety Robert Golden

, and the other being on All Pro safety Harrison Smith of the Vikings in 2015 for a go ahead touchdown with 4 min left.

Photo Credit. Chicago Bears.com

I would draft a young signal caller at the top of the second round of this years draft and let him develop behind Jay for a year or 2, while still trying to compete in a wide open NFC North. Jay is finally getting an all around solid team around him, and would love for him to change his narrative from Jeff George, to a late Rich Gannon, as someone who finally puts it all together later in his career. The Bears can win with Jay, he's gotten the short end of some bad breaks, and it wouldn't have to be all on him, he can play an Alex Smith game manager like role, and still be a great asset to the Bears. People seem to forget how starved and inconsistent Bears Quarterback play was before Cutler, sure he's had his up and downs and we all have been on Cutler Roller Coaster, but I for one don't think it's time for us to get off.