Long Overdue: Chicago Bears Need to Rid Themselves From Jay Cutler.

Jay Cutler‘s latest misfortune proves it’s finally time for the Chicago Bears to end this seemingly hapless relationship.

Once again, Jay Cutler’s season with the Chicago Bears is off to a rocky start (to say it at best). The latest rocky start being that Cutler found himself subject to a sprained right thumb suffered during Monday night’s disappointing 29-14 loss against the Eagles.

To make matters worse for Bears’ fans, Cutler, fully aware of his injured thumb suffered in the third quarter, proceeded to play through his nagging injury, only to throw a game-killing interception off his back foot that set the Eagles’ offense up at the Bears’ 2 yard line. By that point in time, the game was still relatively close at 16-7. One play later (thanks to Cutler giving the Eagles terrific field position with his careless pass), the game was all-but-over at 22-7.

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This has been the highlight of Jay Cutler’s long, straneous, eight year tenure with the Bears. An interception here, a strip fumble turnover there, a typical sack followed, and ultimately: another in-game season injury. Having been the team’s starting quarterback for this long should have no Bears’ fan surprised anymore by Cutler’s habitual struggles.

As it turns out, Cutler is expected to miss only a few weeks due to his sprained thumb injury (Not sure if that’s good news or bad…depending on who you’re asking). Surgery is not required, and in all likelihood, Cutler should be back on the field by mid-season if all goes well.

By that point in time though, it probably won’t make a difference, given that the Bears’ lackluster 0-2 start sure doesn’t seem to offer fans any optimism surrounding their team’s future play. While the defense at times has looked to be improved upon from last season, overall it is still very much a work in progress. As for the Bears’ offense: Let’s just call it “what it currently is”: pathetic.

As evident in the two losses by the Bears’ this season, this much we can safely conclude regarding the team’s dismal offensive play: The Bears can’t beat teams through the air, nor on the ground. They can’t pose as a “real” threat to opposing teams through running the ball down the field for easy yardage, nor can they throw the ball regularly for big-yard completions (without avoiding a costly turnover). This is a typical recipe for a team’s spiraling downfall, rather than upward rise.

In the end, the Bears’ offensive struggles through the early portion of this season revolve around Jay Cutler’s mediocre play at quarterback. Last season saw Cutler’s overall statistical numbers improve under the direct leadership of (now former) offensive coordinator Adam Gase. Unfortunately, Gase is gone now, having taking the Miami Dolphins head coaching job, and clearly, whether as a result of his immediate departure or not, the Bears’ offense led by Cutler has been off-sync to say the least.

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The Bears were suppose to have improved dramatically from Year One to Year Two under head coach John Fox. Maybe not to the point of being a clear-cut title contender, but at the very least being a fringe playoff contender. While it’s still very early in the season, the Bears are thus far failing to pass the eye test in regard to overall progression from a season ago. If the eye test held true to Cutler’s overall play on the field for all these years as the Bears’ QB, he too would be failing. In fact: he would have failed it entirely, a long time ago.

Most starting quarterbacks in the NFL who struggle mightily with their teams usually have short shelf lives. There is an immediate demand for QBs to produce in their teams’ offense, because unless a team possesses a stout defense, you can’t expect to win a Super Bowl with an incompetent offense. The Bears with Cutler leading the reins for all these years, have had just that: an incompetent offense. It hasn’t helped that the Bears’ defense has been lackluster throughout recent years as well, but preventing game-losing turnovers on a daily basis has been one area in which Jay Cutler has been unable to avoid seemingly for his entire Bears’ career.

It’s time for the Chicago Bears to face reality: They are not going in any direction other than one filled with sheer disappointment in regards to continual losing under the turnover/injury prone Jay Cutler starting at quarterback. If the Bears by now haven’t realized this, they should. The team should look to break ties with Cutler following the end of this season at all costs, especially if it’s going the way we all expecting it to go now. The Bears will be better off tanking the rest of this season, rather than trying to float mediocrely around .500, only to once again let down die-hard Bears’ fans who still have the faintest of hope that this team is going to somehow pull of a miracle by making the playoffs.

By tanking this season, the Bears will be setting themselves up for a top draft pick, one in which they could smartly use on selecting a young top-tier rookie quarterback: one who offers more promise than the team’s current aging, yet on-and-off injured veteran QB. As we have seen this year thus far, there have been plenty of rookie QBs who have already made more of a positive impact on their teams’ offensive play than Jay Cutler has to this point.

Even if the Bears aren’t able to cut ties with Cutler following this season because of his current contract situation, it should be made evident to the Bears’ coaching staff that Cutler’s future outlook with the team should…and I mean only “SHOULD” be as a bridge quarterback (if he isn’t that already). It has been proven time and time again that the Bears can’t win consistently with Cutler as their starting QB (See Games 1 and 2 of this season if you dare).

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Unless the Bears want to continue to be stuck in limbo while the Packers and Vikings run away with the NFC North for the years to come, this team needs to reevaluate the most important position in football: the quarterback position: something they have been reluctant to address for many years now. Something that has been for quite some time now: long overdue.

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