Posted on 12/29/2014 8:21:14 AM PST by Citizen Zed
DING! Winnner! As I said the day the Bears signed Cutler in the first place, he'll never be anything other than a low to mid-tier QB in the NFL, and on most teams would never have been the starter in the first place. Once they get the big guaranteed contract, they're set. They're done. No need to risk getting hurt and playing hard.
You're exactly correct that signing the big dollar guaranteed contracts almost always takes away the incentive for a player to continue to perform at a high level.
Flacco (Ravens) and Manning (NY Giants) come to mind. As does Jared Allen who the Bears acquired from Minnesota this year.
The only part of that last bit I don’t think I agree with is that nobody will pick up most of his contract. I think that the teams I mentioned before, looking at the prospect of lesser QB’s or paying for 1 to 2 years most or all of Cutler’s salary would indeed bite. They would be under intense pressure to find somebody and frankly there aren’t that many NFL ready QB’s.
I don’t think they would get their number one pick, but I Do indeed think they would pick up much or all of his salary and midlevel picks for his services for one or two years.
If the Bears could get that deal, the extra pics plus the a shot at whoever the best QB is in the upcoming draft with at a #7 pick would be the best they could hope for. Or, they can play Clausen, back him up with Fales and use ALL of the pics to bolster the defense. You are looking at up to 6 NFL ready defensive prospects to shore up the defense.
There are a lot of Bears fans here in Indiana.
I told them firing Lovie Smith was going to be like the Browns firing Marty Schottenheimer.
Lovie was good at defense and special teams. His teams were AWFUL on the offensive side of the ball. I will never forgive him for starting Rex Grossman instead of Orton in the the Superbowl. By the way, the entire Defense got old under his watch, not Tressman. He left the cupboard bare when he left Chicago.
Sorry, I was not unhappy to see him go. Lovie was overrated.
81-63 lifetime in Chi.
Yeah everybody wants Belichick, but there aren’t many around.
As the old song goes...you don’t know what you’ve got. Til it’s gone.
How many concussions did Cutler suffer under Lovie?
How many concussions did Cutler suffer under Lovie?
I remember taking a beating on this forum when I said I was glad Lovie Smith was gone. Buccaneer's fans seemed all to glad to have him. Now they're seeing what we saw: Lovie Smith was not head coach material. He was in fact, a hell of a defensive/special teams coach as you pointed out and he was the architect of the St. Louis Ram's defense the year they went to the SuperBowl.
The Bears mistake with head coaches time and time again has been to focus on "Defensive" minded coaches. Trestman was supposed to be a 'break' from that and by the performance of the offense last year (Total yards, points scored, etc..) it seemed the Offense was "fixed" but the Defense was in fact broken (and old.)
What we saw this year was IMO the culmination of several factors, including the fact that Lovie Smith did leave the team "old" and "bare" and that Trestman wasn't the Offensive minded coach he appeared to be last year.
As much as Mel Tucker never did a thing to adjust the defense or swich things up, neither did Trestman this year. According to some of the commentary I heard today on Sports Radio, the lack of Trestman "adjusting" the Offense and his inability to deal with Tucker's horrible offense was ultimately his undoing this year.
As one station reported it, the decision to clear out the Front Office and Coaching staff was made 2-3 games ago.
Three that I remember, although I'm not so sure I trust my memory on this one.
Lovie Smith did Jay Cutler no favors by not shoring up the Offensive Line and protecting him during Smith's last two years. Cutler took a beating.
But I would hasten to add I haven't seen another QB like him.
Three of the seven teams who lost to the Vikings this season fired their coaches today.
Clearly, we aren’t trying hard enough.
Yet another house cleaning for Bears fans. I was hoping that Harbaugh might come to Chicago. No such luck.
I was going to make that point, but opted not to. You're correct, and Peyton Manning is the classic exception to the rule. The man is a machine, probably the best Quarterback I've ever seen (especially since he's been with Denver.)
I'm probably not unlike alot of football fans who were really nervous about his continuing to play after all his neck surgeries. The way he left the Indianapolis Colts just had CLASS written all over it. We could see how much he appreciated the team, the fans, the owners, etc.. But still, in the back of my mind I was really worried that "one good hit" was going to turn him into a quadraplegic or worse. So glad those concerns were unfounded. Peyton Manning is just so much fun to watch. The command he has on the field is really something special to watch.
I'd be surprised if Peyton Manning isn't a unanimous candidate to the Hall of Fame. Great player, class act all the way around. Pro Football needs more like him.
With ya on that! I'd have burned my Packers Jersey and gone back to being a Bears fan. Alas that was never in the cards, Harbaugh's taking his dream job as his Alum.
I say Pro Football's loss, and good for him.
Jim Harbaugh Rumors Lead To 6X Increase In Michigan vs. Illinois Basketball Tickets
I am genuinely excited for the first time in years about my childhood team.
You're concerns were very well founded. Peyton doesn't talk about it much but when he finally finished the surgeries he couldn't toss a football ten feet. He had extensive nerve damage and underwent a strenuous rehab routine to try to spur nerve regeneration. According to the docs, sometimes the nerves regenerate and sometimes they don't. Fortunately, in Peyton's case and with a lot of hard work they came back.
His buddy from Tennessee (and the guy he replaced as QB), Todd Helton, arranged to make the Colorado Rockies training facility available to Peyton when he was rehabbing.
Not sure.
But all those guys need to be wearing the Simpson Ganassi helmet made here in Indy.
They use racing technology and engineering support from Purdue.
http://www.sghelmets.com/how-to-choose-football-helmet/
Az could use Cutler. Bears receivers seemed to always be going the wrong way with Jay.
He was quarterbacking what was perhaps the greatest Vikings team ever to take the field (1975).
They/he were deprived of a Super Bowl shot when the refs decided to overlook a blatant push-off in the final seconds of a playoff game and hand the victory to "America's Team" with the original "Hail Mary" pass.
Fran's dad actually died watching that game.
It had to be the worst day of Fran's life.
The only consolation for Vikings fans was that the ref took a whiskey bottle to the head.
Of course, the Purple People and their fans have been paying for that one ever since...
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