It doesn’t matter how much money a team has committed to a specific player. If he’s unable to perform at even a mediocre level, said player will find himself riding the pine.
This is obviously the case with Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who signed a ridiculous seven-year, $126.7 million extension with the team last January.
Cutler, 31, has turned the ball over a whopping 39 times in his last 26 starts. During that span, the former first-round pick of the Denver Broncos has led Chicago to a substandard 10-16 record. Interestingly enough, the Bears are 3-3 in games that Cutler hasn’t played.
This tells us a story of Cutler being more of a problem on the field than anything else.
In keeping with that theme, new Bears head coach John Fox isn’t exactly committing to Cutler as the team’s starter for the 2015 season.
It’s all an open competition,” Fox said this past week, via CSN Chicago. “Obviously you’ve got to start somewhere and my experience in football, really in anything, it’s not where you start a competition; it’s where you finish it.
Some may look at Fox’s comments as nothing more than hyperbole, especially considering Chicago’s only other options outside of Cutler are career backup Jimmy Clausen and a young project quarterback in David Fales.
This didn’t stop Fox from elaborating on where things stand as it relates to the team’s quarterback situation.
But we’ve got to start the race with some kind of lineup. We have not discussed that in depth. We have not presented it to our players yet. I kind of have it in my brain and then they compete.
While Fox didn’t have player personnel control when he was with the Carolina Panthers, it’s important to note that the team did select Clausen in the second round of the 2010 NFL draft with him manning the sidelines.
Any real expectation that Clausen or Fales would beat out Cutler, who is set to earn $31.5 million in base salary over the next two seasons, would have to include the embattled signal caller struggling under new offensive coordinator Adam Gase.
If that happens, Chicago may very well turn to Clausen. After all, Cutler has graded out among the worst regular starting quarterbacks in the NFL over the past couple years. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Cutler ranked 32nd among 39 qualified quarterbacks this past season.
It doesn’t matter how much cash Chicago has committed to Cutler. He needs to show a vast improvement in order to gain the confidence of the new coaching staff moving forward.
Photo: USA Today Sports