John Fox Bending Over Backwards And Defying Logic With Jay Cutler
John Fox and Ryan Pace said that
Jay Cutleris the Chicago Bears’ quarterback moving on. He is the starter. Now, however, he says there will be an open competition. After going through all the talking with former players and coaches and all the internal discussions, there could be a chance Cutler will end up as a backup? Fox is defying logic saying that.
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At the end of the NFL owners meetings on Wednesday, reporters asked Chicago Bears head coach John Fox if there was a situation in which he envisioned embattled quarterback Jay Cutler fighting for the starting job.
“I would say logically if you are looking at the depth chart and you are asking me for it two weeks before we can really get anything going, I’d say he’d be first on the depth chart, yeah,” Fox said. “Obviously you’ve got to start somewhere and my experience in football and really anything is it’s not where you start the race, it’s where you finish it. We have to start the race with some kind of lineup, and we have not discussed that in-depth. We have not presented it to our players in-depth. I think it’s important for them to see it maybe more than you guys. I’ve had guys who were third on the depth chart that by the time we started the opener were first. I can’t tell you what’s happening. If I could I’d be at some racetrack somewhere.”
So we can expect to see Cutler as the starter, but there is a chance that Jimmy Clausen or maybe a quarterback drafted in this draft has a chance in unseating him?
Fox and Ryan Pace vetted Cutler to see if he was Chicago Bears material. They decided he was. “We’re moving forward with Jay Cutler as our starting quarterback,” Pace said two weeks ago.
So will Fox really have a quarterback competition?
Chicago Bears
Cutler will make $15.5 million this season. He also has $10 million of his $16 million salary in 2016 guaranteed already. Is Fox really going to have him on the bench with a clipboard (or tablet)?
I don’t understand the logic Fox is using with this situation. He and Pace went to former coaches and former players (and apparently current players) to vet Cutler. Even though they supposedly got mixed (at best) reviews on Cutler, the Bears went forward with him.
After saying there was an “open competition” at quarterback, Fox talked about Cutler’s confidence not being high. “I think maybe he got to a point where he lacked confidence. He has to build that back up, and it’s going to take time,” he said.
So you build it up by saying Clausen or a rookie has a chance of unseating him?
I have been one of the growing number of people who have given up on Cutler. At 31, I think we’ve seen what he is, and cannot talk about what he can be. He is what he is. The Bears are going with him, though, so they should go all in. Do whatever it takes to get the most out of him. If it means you babysit him and make sure his confidence is sky-high, or saying he is the starter and that’s it, then they should do it.
Cutler has one last shot. Fox should do everything to make sure no one else gets blamed.
Instead of bending over backward to let us know he is open to a new quarterback, Fox should bend over backward to have Cutler comfortable enough to help win games. If we are to be with Cutler as the quarterback for the next year or two, let’s make sure he is happy enough to care about winning games.