You’re just going to have to accept this fact Chicago Bears fans: Jay Cutler will be here. For at least another year. Maybe in 2016 they can write him a nice fat check and he’ll go away, but for now the Bears are stuck with him. Move over Alfonso Soriano, Ben Wallace and Jaime Navarro, we have a brand new “all time worst signing in Chicago sports history.”
As bas as those three previous deals were, the Jay Cutler contract is worse than all three of those combined.
As we chronicled before, if the Bears trade Jay Cutler, they will save $12.5 million against the cap next year. Good luck finding a trading partner though. So with the help of NFL trade rumors, we look at other Jay Cutler options.
First off, it bears mentioning than we are dealing with a total meltdown of a situation here. If the Bears quarterback situation was a nuclear power plant, we’ve moved past Three Mile Island and we’re rapidly approaching Chernobyl. This isn’t just a core reactor leak; this is explosion and subsequent nuclear winter fallout level of dysfunction.
Monday Night Football’s Jon Gruden, who LOVES EVERYBODY and anybody that he sees playing before him, did nothing but rip Jay Cutler and the Bears. Even Gruden couldn’t find positive words for a man who was shut out in the first half versus the NFL’s 31st ranked defense.
The Bears are one of just a handful of teams in the NFL that haven’t scored 30 points in a game yet this season. Cutler leads the NFL in interceptions. His teammates don’t seem to like/respect/trust him; at all.
Albert Breer of NFL Media reports that the Bears would take on $4 million in dead money by trading QB Jay Cutler next year. In 2014, Chicago paid Cutler $22.5 million (the highest paid player in the entire National Football League) of the $38 million in guaranteed money in his deal. Cutting Cutty would cost another $15.5 million. So for $38 million, this nightmare could end tomorrow. If the Bears wait until March, then they’re on the hook for another $10 million in guaranteed dough.
This isn’t off the table. Jay Cutler has not just lost the locker room. He’s lost the entire Chicago Bears community. At this point, he has no acolytes. The few “dead-enders” who supported him deserted the ship following the abomination at home versus the Saints.
Breer points out that trading Cutler could be a difficult move to pull off given that the quarterback will hold plenty of leverage in this particular situation.
Of course, what works against the Bears also works in their favor- there are so few good, legitimate signal callers out there. If the Bears are ready to jettison Jay Cutler, what’s the plan?
Is there one?
On the other hand, so many teams are so desperate for a QB that Cutler may be an option for them. Pending of course you can see beyond the idea that he’s a Deron Williams of the NFL, a “coach killer.” And that’s an unfair comparison to Williams, as Jay Cutler has left many more coaches and offensive coordinators in his wake. Marc Trestman will be next on December 29th (more on that here).
According to Over The Cap.com releasing Cutler next year would create $19.5 million in dead money while decreasing cap space by $3 million. They would have to make this move by June 1st, otherwise the cap hit would be an additional $3 million on top of that. With the Bears set to eat the Trestman contract, and do a fair amount of house cleaning, it just seems highly unlikely that they can part ways with Jay Cutler this offseason. it would be unprecedented in their organization. Perhaps unprecedented in football, or all of sports.
Then again, Jay Cutler is so disliked, and deservedly so, that all options, including the nuclear option, are on the table at this point.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2