Greg Cosell article on Cutler situation

OnemanWolfpack

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Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman’s offense is grounded in Bill Walsh’s West Coast philosophy.

I know the “West Coast Offense” term is vague by now because of how many changes have been made to it by different coaches, but the offense’s foundation is grounded in rhythm passing and its precision. If it’s a three-step drop, the ball goes here. If it’s a five-step drop, the ball goes there.

And my sense from afar, watching the film, is that Jay Cutler is not that kind of precision quarterback for that offense.

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Before we get more into the fit between Trestman and Cutler, here’s a play that I think is telling. It was the second play of Chicago’s game last Monday night against the New Orleans Saints. On second and eight from the Bears’ 9-yard line, Cutler had a three-step drop and a throw that should have gone to the right. A three-step drop is not a full-field read; you don’t read both sides because it is supposed to come out quick. Tight end Martellus Bennett is immediately open to Cutler’s right, and that’s the throw. You get it to him, he likely gains a minimum of 5 or 6 yards, and now it’s third and 2, a manageable situation to sustain a drive.

Except that Cutler didn’t throw the ball to Bennett, and for whatever reason he looked to the other side of the field, and that’s not in play on a three-step drop. He threw the ball away. Instead of it being third and short, it was third and 8. On the next play, Cutler threw an interception.


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Here's the end-zone angle of that play, right after the snap, and you can see Bennett breaking open on the right:


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Everyone looks at the big plays with Cutler, like the interceptions that get dissected. But the small plays like this one add up, even if it won't be noticed or remembered by most people. And small plays are what Trestman’s offense is built around. If the quarterback is not making those plays, he’s not executing the offense.

This is all just my sense of what has happened in Chicago, I’m not there inside the building to know what’s going on. But I think when Trestman came in he thought about Cutler, "There’s a lot to work with here. My system is precise and it gives you answers and I can make him into a better, more consistent quarterback with those answers.” It appeared as if it was trending in the right direction last year, Trestman’s first in Chicago.

I think you can compare what has happened this year to when you’re trying to teach someone something brand new, and it takes hold for a while. Then all of a sudden it doesn’t take hold anymore because that’s not who the person is, and things get worse.

Walsh’s offense, which is the foundation for what Trestman does, is built around precision in everything, especially for the quarterback. The drop, the footwork, everything has to be very precise. Cutler doesn’t do that, and never really has. He has never been a pure anticipation thrower or a disciplined structured player. He has immense arm talent, and likely because of that he’s a “see it, throw it” quarterback. He’ll wait until he sees a receiver come open, then throw it. That’s the antithesis of being an anticipation thrower. And his arm is good enough to make many of those throws. But he’s not a highly disciplined, nuanced quarterback, which is what is needed for Trestman’s offense to work at a high level.

You need the right fit between quarterback and offensive system. Every offense has rhythm and timing, but Cutler might be more comfortable playing a game where he can pass the ball down the field regularly as part of the offensive system. However, Mike Martz was offensive coordinator there with his vertical philosophy in 2010 and 2011 and that wasn’t the answer either, so who knows.

At this point Cutler will be viewed a bit as damaged goods. But he can still throw the ball and is a talented guy, and with the dearth of quality quarterbacks in the NFL I’d guess someone will trade for him, if the Bears decide to go that route. I’m wondering if Cutler should be headed for a different type of role in an offense. Always with Cutler, coaches have looked at the physical skills and thought he would be a lead quarterback to build an offense around. Maybe he’s not that guy for whatever reason. Maybe he needs to be a complementary piece in an offense built around the running back, on a team with a big-time defense, so he can be used as a play-action passer and not put the whole offense on his shoulders.

There are a thousand things that go into Cutler not having a good season, of course. If the Bears had a better defense, maybe they have three more wins and we’re not talking about this at all. The offensive line hasn’t been very good, and that’s a factor too, especially since the Bears can’t sustain a run game even though they have a really good back in Matt Forte. But those things haven't happened, Cutler hasn't had a good year either, and now the Bears are turning to Jimmy Clausen this week.

In my opinion, I don’t think Trestman did the wrong thing trying to get Cutler to fit in his scheme. He looked at Cutler and said, there’s so much there to work with, I need to make him better so he can be good every single week, not just once in a while. I don’t think you’re doing the wrong thing when you’re trying to get a talented player to play with more structure and discipline. If that’s not who Cutler is, that’s not who he is, and that might just be where we are at this point.
 

mecha

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for such a dogshit season, he's seemingly doing statistically well. minus the interceptions, of course. which, what difference do those make when the defense is #32 in the league? has he even thrown a pick 6 this year?

and for fucks sake with all the outrage about interceptions, they're almost 10 less than what he did in 2009. Sheli Manning threw fucking 27 last year and 25 in 2010. Cutler's 2009 campaign with Devin Hester and Johnny "I'm gonna lay down and let DBs just intercept me" Knox was effectively the average of Sheli's worst 2 seasons.
 

ZenBear34

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good article, and i agree(and posted something very similar a few weeks back.)

i think there's a lot to this. first of all, i think trestman's system can work. i think he might even be a decent coordinator. my dislike of trestman come's from him as a head coach, which is something i think he's totally unqualified to be.

and as an organization, i think the ultimate failure emery and trestman made was in the utter misevaluation of cutler. thinking he could succeed in this offense was purely idiotic and arrogant. thinking he was a true franchise quarterback was a mistake. i think cutler can be an effective quarterback in the right situation. he certainly can't be in a pass happy offense, nor can he play with a terrible defense. he's just not that kind of quarterback.

that emery and trestman didn't realize this is why they need to go. it was clear as day.

as the article states, he needs to be part of a team, not the center piece of a team. he needs a great defense and a run first offense that allows him to work off play action and roll outs. and it should probably be somewhere other then chicago.
 

ZenBear34

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for such a dogshit season, he's seemingly doing statistically well. minus the interceptions, of course. which, what difference do those make when the defense is #32 in the league? has he even thrown a pick 6 this year?

and for fucks sake with all the outrage about interceptions, they're almost 10 less than what he did in 2009. Sheli Manning threw fucking 27 last year and 25 in 2010. Cutler's 2009 campaign with Devin Hester and Johnny "I'm gonna lay down and let DBs just intercept me" Knox was effectively the average of Sheli's worst 2 seasons.

stats are meaningless. he has so many garbage yards it's not even funny. the offense has consistently been terrible to start games and couple that with an awful defense you have a bad football team.
 

Monsieur Tirets

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Read this earlier. Cutler simply isnt cut out to be an NFL QB. He does things no starting NFL QB should do, while failing to do the things every starting QB should. Take away the turn overs and he still leaves far too many plays on the field because he simply cannot execute an NFL O.
 

westcoast bear fanatic

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Read this earlier. Cutler simply isnt cut out to be an NFL QB. He does things no starting NFL QB should do, while failing to do the things every starting QB should. Take away the turn overs and he still leaves far too many plays on the field because he simply cannot execute an NFL O.

That's just dumb dude, there are 32 teams and there are not 32 better QB's in the league then Cutler so what the hell are you saying. As far as what system Cutler could do well in, has anyone watched Dallas this year?
 

Monsieur Tirets

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That's just dumb dude, there are 32 teams and there are not 32 better QB's in the league then Cutler so what the hell are you saying. As far as what system Cutler could do well in, has anyone watched Dallas this year?

What the hell are you saying? What I said is pretty damn clear, the guy is not an NFL QB in that he doesn't have what it takes to execute an NFL O efficiently. There are plenty of guys like that floating around the league, and yes some are shittier than Cutler, that doesn't make him special. Of course if youre only capable of literal thought, than yeah, he is a QB and is in the NFL. Good for him. I suppose, just to have made it crystal clear, I should have said he shouldn't be a starting NFL QB. And this week hes not. Fortunately, there will be a team or two dumb enough to think he is one come trade time.

The guy still makes mistakes a rookie wouldn't make, still misses reads that a college kid in a pro system wouldnt miss, and still hasn't grasped the concept of looking off a safety. Not to mention the total lack of pocket awareness, anticipation and sound mechanics. But sure, hes a solid QB.

Fuck, I should have just stopped when you made a half-ass reference to Dallas. Romo is ten times the QB Jay will ever be. Put Jay in that system and the result is the same, an inefficient O with missed reads, unnecessary sacks, and a turn over or two whenever you actually have to ask him to throw it.
 

airtime143

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What the hell are you saying? What I said is pretty damn clear, the guy is not an NFL QB in that he doesn't have what it takes to execute an NFL O efficiently. There are plenty of guys like that floating around the league, and yes some are shittier than Cutler, that doesn't make him special. Of course if youre only capable of literal thought, than yeah, he is a QB and is in the NFL. Good for him. I suppose, just to have made it crystal clear, I should have said he shouldn't be a starting NFL QB. And this week hes not. Fortunately, there will be a team or two dumb enough to think he is one come trade time.

The guy still makes mistakes a rookie wouldn't make, still misses reads that a college kid in a pro system wouldnt miss, and still hasn't grasped the concept of looking off a safety. Not to mention the total lack of pocket awareness, anticipation and sound mechanics. But sure, hes a solid QB.

Fuck, I should have just stopped when you made a half-ass reference to Dallas. Romo is ten times the QB Jay will ever be. Put Jay in that system and the result is the same, an inefficient O with missed reads, unnecessary sacks, and a turn over or two whenever you actually have to ask him to throw it.

The bolded part is pretty much the entire story.
He plays like a rookie, makes rookie errors, has the awareness of a rookie, yet has 10 years of wear and tear on him.

Sure, he has a ton of potential. But then again, the NFL is littered with insanely talented players who wash out of the league due to not being able to handle the speedy decision making at NFL speed.
 

AHSIllini32

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Read this earlier. Cutler simply isnt cut out to be an NFL QB. He does things no starting NFL QB should do, while failing to do the things every starting QB should. Take away the turn overs and he still leaves far too many plays on the field because he simply cannot execute an NFL O.

Yeah, there's certainly a lot of things people can rag on Cutler about but saying he isn't or can't be an NFL QB is just ignorant.
 

Myk

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Martz's system didn't fit the protection yet he tried to force it anyway. Trestman's system got the protection but not the QB, he tries to force it anyway.
Are there any coaches that use a system that suits they players they actually have, or do they all expect to hang around losing year after year while they build a team to their specifications?
 

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good article, and i agree(and posted something very similar a few weeks back.)

i think there's a lot to this. first of all, i think trestman's system can work. i think he might even be a decent coordinator. my dislike of trestman come's from him as a head coach, which is something i think he's totally unqualified to be.

and as an organization, i think the ultimate failure emery and trestman made was in the utter misevaluation of cutler. thinking he could succeed in this offense was purely idiotic and arrogant. thinking he was a true franchise quarterback was a mistake. i think cutler can be an effective quarterback in the right situation. he certainly can't be in a pass happy offense, nor can he play with a terrible defense. he's just not that kind of quarterback.

that emery and trestman didn't realize this is why they need to go. it was clear as day.

as the article states, he needs to be part of a team, not the center piece of a team. he needs a great defense and a run first offense that allows him to work off play action and roll outs. and it should probably be somewhere other then chicago.

You have to remember though that all they had to go on is what Cutler did in the games he played last year and he wasn't as bad as he's been this year. I'm not trying to defend Cutler here cause he's been horrible but he really didn't play that bad last year. Trestman's play calling is horrible which makes me think that he wouldn't even be a good OC in this league. He has made many questionable calls in every aspect of the game. Trestman has got to go and the only way i want Cutler to stay is if we get J.Harbaugh in here or i might give M.Shanahan a shot but i'm definitely not sold on him.
 

Probie2429

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If Jay Cutler is going to be your QB, you better be able to live with 20-25 turnovers from him every year. That means you need a strong defense and special teams to overcome his deficiencies. That only happens when you have money/resources to invest in the defense, which can't happen when you are paying Cutler 20+ million a season. If Cutler was being paid about 10 million, I'd have no problem with him as the QB in Chicago.
 

theOHIOSTATE!

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If someone could provide his numbers through the 1st half of this yr, that would be interesting.

I seem to remember his QB rating (certainly not the end all be all of football or even QB stats) was close to 95 and people were still saying he was playing horrendously.

Of late his play has been absolutely horrendous, but earlier in the yr the same people bashing him for not checking down and playing the offense seemed to be bashing him for accruing meaningless/garbage stats from routes like the one discussed in the article.

I PERSONALLY think the guy got sick of the offense not producing down the field like last yr / producing wins and said FK it then reverted back to bad Jay.


What is also hilarious is how people up until these last several games stopped using INTs and went to the more general TO state to bash Jay. Jay isn't playing well, but to blame him for the majority of fumbles he had earlier in the yr is ridiculous given many were the product of pressure/failures on the OL. Ofc that is an oversimplification because he may or may not have been holding the ball too long in spots, but to act as if fumbles and INTs are the same vis a vis evaluating a QB's play over the span of less than a yr....is ridiculous.

Either way, it's all mental masturbation at this point bc Jay clearly isn't the guy to lead us to the SB and this roster is so old and depleted we are looking at at least 2 more BAD yrs before getting it anywhere close to contending for a playoff spot, if we're lucky.

I have no issue with having him QB until 2017 while we rebuild....who cares; it isn't like we will be playing any meaningful games during that span.

If someone really wants him and is willing to send a decent pick....well, make a trade.

p.s.

20 TOs isn't all that bad in the NFL in 2014 for a guy who can throw the ball downfield and get your TDs. I am not sure what this board thought Cutler was going to transform into under any coach- Tom Brady/?

Aaron Rodgers is on track for 16 TOs this yr and is a frontrunner for the MVP....if 20/23 seems like too many for Cutler over a yr, something is wrong with your thinking/expectations.

Andrew Luck has 25 right now, and is on pace for almost 30.


AGAIN, I DON'T THINK JAY CUTLER IS A PARTICULARLY GOOD QB, AND I DON'T THINK HIS CAREER IN CHICAGO IS SALVAGEABLE. It's just hilarious the extent to which people will just lose their marbles with hate for the guy.
 

Bearfanfromnewjersey

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for such a dogshit season, he's seemingly doing statistically well. minus the interceptions, of course. which, what difference do those make when the defense is #32 in the league? has he even thrown a pick 6 this year?

and for fucks sake with all the outrage about interceptions, they're almost 10 less than what he did in 2009. Sheli Manning threw fucking 27 last year and 25 in 2010. Cutler's 2009 campaign with Devin Hester and Johnny "I'm gonna lay down and let DBs just intercept me" Knox was effectively the average of Sheli's worst 2 seasons.

I kind of agree with you. He is a better thsn average qb and is getting alot of shit because he isnt top 10. The problen isnt so much jay as its the team, staff and ownership. Best QB we have had since mcmahon but you would think imhe is cade mcnown by the media coverage. Lets not forget every wb we have had since mcmahan retired.
 

Bears1985defense

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If Jay Cutler is going to be your QB, you better be able to live with 20-25 turnovers from him every year. That means you need a strong defense and special teams to overcome his deficiencies. That only happens when you have money/resources to invest in the defense, which can't happen when you are paying Cutler 20+ million a season. If Cutler was being paid about 10 million, I'd have no problem with him as the QB in Chicago.

You nailed it. Cutler is what he is. No changing him now for as long as he's been in the league. Average QB at best that should have average QB expectations and average QB salary. If he were paid what he's actually worth, and not expected to be anything more than average, I don't think Bears fandom would be quite so hard on him.
 

discplayer

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You have to remember though that all they had to go on is what Cutler did in the games he played last year and he wasn't as bad as he's been this year. I'm not trying to defend Cutler here cause he's been horrible but he really didn't play that bad last year. Trestman's play calling is horrible which makes me think that he wouldn't even be a good OC in this league. He has made many questionable calls in every aspect of the game. Trestman has got to go and the only way i want Cutler to stay is if we get J.Harbaugh in here or i might give M.Shanahan a shot but i'm definitely not sold on him.

this language tickles me... do you realize what you're saying as you type those words? he wasn't THAT bad last year is just a woeful standard to measure a successful QB by. the fact that anyone keeps defending his obvious (and costly) flaws as "not that bad" is really incredible.
 

Broc

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I PERSONALLY think the guy got sick of the offense not producing down the field like last yr / producing wins and said FK it then reverted back to bad Jay.

LOL wut. Offense not producing down the field?! Gee I wonder who's fault that is lol...

I guess it's Trestman's fault Jay can't hit the broad side of a barn on anything over 5 yards this season? Yeah that's it. The system is to blame. Not the QB with the terrible accuracy and decision making.

QB can't hit a stationary player who's correctly sat in the void of a zone defense... clearly it's the offensive systems fault that the QB missed the mark by 2 yards to the left. Damn Trestman and his system to hell!

The Bears need to hire some high school coach to install some basic run first high school system where Jay only has to read 1/4 of the field and only pass the ball 10 times per game (all roll out passes) to be successful.
 

FireFox

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LOL wut. Offense not producing down the field?! Gee I wonder who's fault that is lol...

I guess it's Trestman's fault Jay can't hit the broad side of a barn on anything over 5 yards this season? Yeah that's it. The system is to blame. Not the QB with the terrible accuracy and decision making.

QB can't hit a stationary player who's correctly sat in the void of a zone defense... clearly it's the offensive systems fault that the QB missed the mark by 2 yards to the left. Damn Trestman and his system to hell!

The Bears need to hire some high school coach to install some basic run first high school system where Jay only has to read 1/4 of the field and only pass the ball 10 times per game (all roll out passes) to be successful.

Dude, Trestman sucks man, I am sorry. I am not defending Jay, but Trestman's God-awful play calling didn't help either. Trestman could go down as the worst Chicago Bears head coach, you do realize that. That is saying a lot. Trestman sucks.
 

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Dude, Trestman sucks man, I am sorry. I am not defending Jay, but Trestman's God-awful play calling didn't help either. Trestman could go down as the worst Chicago Bears head coach, you do realize that. That is saying a lot. Trestman sucks.

There are plenty of legit things to criticize Trestman about in his handling of this team but play calling is not one of them, sorry. Blaming "the system" or "play calling" for the offensive failures this season is utter bullshit. Seriously it's the dumbest Cutler excuse there is. Like the next coach isn't going to utilize fundamental football concepts like screen passes, hook routes, or any other short timing routes.

You people act like Trestman handcuffed Cutler but the fact is he gave Cutler the keys to the offense and the green light to check into whatever he wanted when he saw a favorable 1 on 1 matchup he liked. It's not "the systems" fault that Jay Cutler was completely ineffective with that power and responsibility. All he did was waste downs and kill drives with his miss fires so Trestman did exactly what all you people whine for and adjusted his system to fit Cutlers skills or lack of skills as the case may be. Since Cutler couldn't hit anything deep to stretch the field and was only accurate short Trestman reigned it in and went more short passing to move the chains.

Unfortunately Cutler still struggles with 3 step timing routes since he's not trusting his reads and continues to make poor decisions with the ball. Add in the poor mechanics in his footwork and delivery causing his accuracy to suffer and this is exactly what you get. An underachieving offense that struggles to stay on the field and move the ball until the opposing team goes up by 3 scores and sits in a soft prevent D.

Sorry that's not a play calling problem, that's a QB problem.
 

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