Alaskan Grizzly

I'll say this. Of all the 'available' QBs he's the most potentially capable at carrying a team. Can he do it? Unknown. Will he do it? Also, unknown. He sometimes truly exudes that "don't care" attitude he's so infamously tied to. Take the 2009(?) season when we were one game away from going to the SB again and he hurt his knee. I know he was knocked big time by A LOT of folks about his appearance to quit and sit down at one of the most key moments in his career. He just sat on the sidelines and watched Hanie throw the game away. When you have players like Rivers playing with a blown up knee to keep SD alive and Stafford throwing with a dislocated shoulder, its hard not to question his drive. I think having someone like Shannahan could help in a lot of ways. Shannahan will in fact implement a 'run first' offense. He will also employ a lot of Cutler's stronger skill sets (scrambling and throwing on the run) instead of just saying it. And maybe, just maybe, he'll lure an up and comer in his kid to be the OC and eventually HC should it all work out. Since we are essentially stuck with Cutler for at least one more year, might as well try it.

I saw that you essentially posted this twice so I'm sure you're waiting for a contrarian viewpoint. I'll try to do my best at not sounding like; "I told you so". First and foremost, Cutler has little or no leadership skills. Over the course of his 10 (or so) years he has yet to exude some level of leadership. I'm not talking Peyton Manning or Tom Brady level just Franchise QB level. He's being paid it, should be at least acting the part. Instead, he'd just assume sulk on the sidelines and blame other players for his mistakes. Granted, this year he showed SOME improvement but if only for a little. Secondly, the guy is the highest paid player in the NFL right now. But what do we as a team have to show for it? The only thing he's leading in the NFL right now is turnovers. Obviously someone (Trestman and/or Emery) made a bad analysis on Cutler's abilty to effectively run an offense thusly made a bad choice to pay him as well as they did. Why was not franchise tagging him an option for this year? Why go all in and look foolish one short year later? Mark Schlereth (by the way a graduate from here in Alaska) made some interesting observations regarding Cutler last week while on "Mike and Mike". He compared Jay to Romo and how until this year the two were essentially close duplicates of one another. However they did something different this year with Romo. They reduced his number of throws. Something like 600(ish) per year to around 400 where he's not having as many as '3 and outs' because of the more number of missed passes. Thusly the defense isn't as gassed and can play better. Until this year, Dallas was a perennial 8-8 team for at least the last 3 years. Other things they did was build up the Oline and increase their run ability. (ala DeMarco Murray). If Cutler is opting out of the run on his own, then that is another problem. I used to think that Jay should have been able to audibilize more often. However in seeing him play and hearing others comment about his inability to do it correctly, I don't know that its a good idea. I'm still of the mindset that he gets tunnel vision when he throws sometimes. Especially under pressure. So yes, I expect near perfection from a player being paid to produce it.

And I think since he was hit during the last series and didn't need medical staff on the field, they didn't really have a chance to assess until later. I mean the guy came up wanting to fight and yelling "what the fu#* are you doing?" to Ansah. So it didn't appear at first he was bad off.

I wondered about that after his last hit. He seemed a tad off during the remainder of the 2 min drill.

There is almost no doubt now in my mind that Cutler is not the right one for this system. With essentially two journeymen able to come in and run it effectively then there is no question they wasted all that money on Cutler. IF Clausen were able to continue to play like he did today then yes I'd be ok if he started. Like to first see how he does next week before I finalize my judgement. Speaking of a Cutler deal with the Titans. How about the Bears make a deal straight up for Locker?

Maybe the rotation of the cylindrical orbish shaped object is off? Or he's not used to getting the ball in his hands this year?

By the way, Dominic Raiola is a POS.

This.

Achillies injury. Great show this year Mr Young. Looking forward to seeing you back bext year and getting your buddy Suh to join you. And while I'm plugging: looking forward to the return of Allen too.

[quote name='ASHKUM BEAR' date='Dec 21 2014, 10:39 AM' post=' Now that Trestman has this team going. What will this team do now? Fire Emery for signing Jay and forcing him on to the coaching? Hate to say it, but Clausen has moxy right now and the team is starting to buy in. The defense is even up beat. That's the key. The TEAM is playing up because EVERTHING is working right. All three phases are clicking. The defense is rested because the offense is managing the ball control etc etc...

I do love me some Lovie. I won't deny. But you bring up a concern I had earlier this week when they chose to start Clausen. What happens IF we see what we're seeing? Granted there still is a half to play in this game but what happens IF we see Clausen effectively run this O like McCown did last year? And to blunt the "yeah but McCown played lesser defenses" arguement, this is a high rated defense that Clausen is facing.

Do I dare say... Clausen 2015?

This.?

Nope. Read my post and watch the game(s) and you'll understand what I'm saying. You're being obtuse.

Break down any plays between the two and the majority of the time that Cutler runs is due to the pocket (or protection) collapsing. Not because he wasn't looking for his second or third options.

And you might add Jimmy C isn't getting paid millions to be the franchise QB.

And has had at least three drops by the receivers. When receivers drop it because of Citler throwing it they aren't "where they're supposed to be".

You must be kidding. That one play where Forte fell down on the screen Cutler would have thrown it into the ground at his feet. Clausen instead looked downfield and ran. Let alone all the progression checks he's doing. You must not watch often if you don't see it.

Hindsight being what it is probably should have done FG but think it still a good choice to go for it there. Clausen looks sharp after starting a little slow in the first two series. Can't blame Bennett for being pissed.

Neither was McCown before last year. Neither was Clausen... 4 years ago when he last started. But...anything is possible. And the question still has to be considered. Am I convinced he's any better? No. Am I intrigued? Nother story.

Mike and Mike were just recently talking about prospective teams that Cutler could end up IF he were to be traded. They came up with about 10 possible teams. Tennessee apparently is a highly touted contestant because of his ties to Vanderbilt and that he is still relatively kept in high regard in the Nashville area. I agree that the current management/coaches should have nothing to say about where Cutler goes. Could really mess up things in negotiations for a new coaching staff.

Cute, I see what you did there. In all actuality he wasn't kept most likely because he couldn't develop a franchise quarterback. Which, IMHO, would make him an expert on underperforming QB's. So if I were to base my respect on him it would be more about his analysis than his coaching.

So if part of the problem was because Trestman didn't allow the team to pick captains? One of them probably would have been Cutler. Why? Because he's the QB or because he's a leader? Which one would earn him that 'C' by his peers?

Interestingly enough I'd agree with this. Something tells me that if Trestman goes away and another were to have a chance with Cutler maybe...just maybe he could prove me wrong. Truly, as much as I've banged on Cutler I would really like to see him succeed. Who knows, once Trestman is gone then some of the skeletons will come out of the closet and we'll hear what the real reasons why the team is as bad as it is. If the removal involves Emery, better yet. But...if Clausen does come out for these last two games and do well, then I'll have to think twice.

Your opinion is what it is and based on personal knowledge. Mine was based on what I heard coach Billick say. And when he said he actually apologized for it. Perhaps because he too knew the type of person George was. Be that as it may, the talent is all that really matters to me as a football fan.