2016: The Loss
The irony about this entire roller coaster ride is that for the first time in 2015 it looked like Jay Cutler had an offensive coordinator both whom he liked and one who could actually get him to play well. Adam Gase helped him produce the highest quarterback rating of his career with a 92.3, throwing 21 touchdowns to just 11 interceptions. It was a relationship Bears fans had wanted to see for years. Sure enough the brief instant they got to see was nothing more than an exciting movie trailer.
Gase departed this past off-season to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Chicago tried to maintain continuity by promoting quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains to replace him. Another coach Cutler knows and respects. Sadly the relationship isn’t the same. Loggains is a smart man but doesn’t have the same capacity for game planning and play calling as Gase did. Just two games into the season Cutler took a huge number of hits and ended up re-injuring the thumb on his throwing hand.
Thus we’ve arrived back in the present. Jay Cutler still hasn’t recovered from the injury and discussion has begun in earnest about whether he ever takes another snap with the Chicago Bears. Most are convinced that head coach John Fox has no qualms about moving on and GM Ryan Pace has sought a replacement ever since he took over last year.
Could things have been done better by the organization? Of course. Could Cutler himself had tried harder to make things work in certain situations rather than just accepting changes? Sure. The bottom line is there was no one instance that led to his time in Chicago become an ultimate failure. Like almost anything in life it was a series of moments throughout the past few years that combined into this final results. A mix of bad decisions and sheer bad luck.
That’s the NFL.