Jay Cutler: Dynamo or Diva?
Having worked with a couple of fans of the Chicago Bears in the past eight months or so, I've frequently been treated to the praises of Jay Cutler, the newest starting quarterback for the Bears and the supposed savior of the franchise (and their 23rd starting quarterback in 21 years).
Since you most likely already know who this Jay Cutler fellow is if you have ever bothered to read about him, I won't bore you with the details for long: Young phenomenon quarterback from Vanderbilt, had a good season with the Broncos last year, traded to Chicago for Kyle "Drinks On Me" Orton after having a diva moment at the end of the 2008 season... I've heard it all before, and so have you. What I need to stress, though, is how badly he lived up to his hype in his first game as a Bear against the Green Bay Packers. Here were some of the assorted praises I've heard from Bears fans since the Cutler-Orton trade:
"Jay Cutler is a beast!"
"Jay Cutler will own the NFC North this year!"
"Jay Cutler kicks Aaron Rodgers' ass!"
Look, don't get me wrong: I won't go on calling Cutler an idiot or anything, because he's not. He got a score of 26 on his Wonderlic test, which roughly approximates to an IQ of 112. While that's not incredibly high, it's still pretty good, and most likely demonstrates genuine intelligence on his part. However, as with just about every professional sport, intelligence can only get you so far, even as a quarterback. What Cutler has in intelligence, he anti-compensates for in the "cocky" and "diva" department. Yes, yes, again, I know: In professional sports, cockiness is largely par for the course. You're probably asking me: "Captain, why are you attacking Cutler for being a diva? Why not Brett Favre, or (insert wide receiver here)?"
Two reasons:
1. I haven't gotten around to making fun of Brett Favre yet, and the Vikings won their first game anyway, even if it was with Adrian Peterson.
2. Cockiness is acceptable only if it's backed up by excellent play.
Number two's the big reason, and the one that I'll bother elaborating on for the sake of this article. Honestly, Jay Cutler could whine for forty days and forty nights, and I probably wouldn't care on one condition: Actual play on the field.
I don't care how awesome you are on paper. Unless you can show up week after week after week for sixteen times (not counting the playoffs, of course), in my opinion, you really don't have any right to go around mouthing off about your teams and teammates. I also don't care how good Jay Cutler was last year, because statistics from last year don't carry into other years. If Jay Cutler is really that awesome, surely he can regularly put up 4,000+ yard figures year after year after year, right? I'd advise all of you to look at Jeff George's one 4,000 yard year to see where one great year really gets you in the long run if you don't keep it up.
Of course, I could just as easily be as rash and arrogant about one four-interception performance by Jay Cutler as Jay Cutler has acted himself. Perhaps he had first-game jitters playing against a storied rival, and will be all that he was with Denver last year this year. I think that his excellent performance in Denver was mostly due to a solid backing corps on offense that really can't be said for Chicago, but if Jay Cutler is the true playmaker that my Bears fan friends have made him out to be, then he'll certainly prove me wrong. I plan to revisit this article a couple of weeks down the road, and am prepared to gloat or eat crow, depending on what happens next.
Maybe Cutler's just that brilliant and arrogant, and he put on Week 1's "performance" just to spite and screw us all over down the road. Since he's my backup fantasy football quarterback, maybe this would ultimately be best for me. Maybe I'll be back here on Electronic Renaissance during the Bears' bye week, taking in a quarterback rating of 98.1 for Cutler with more than my fair share of crow. Until then, I'll keep calling him "Ryan Leaf with an arm" until he's proven himself to be otherwise. Then again, on Week 1, he simply played like Ryan Leaf.
One more funny thing: He's from Santa Claus, Indiana, and one his four Week 1 interceptions was to a man named "Jolly".
See you in a few weeks, Chicago.
Love him? Hate him? What do you think about Jay Cutler? Write with your opinions to captainnosebleed (at) electronicrenaissance (dot) com, and your comments could end up in the next edition of Captain's Mailbox.
You can also discuss this article at its associated forum topic.
