Jay Cutler figures to give the Bears stability at quarterback for many years to come.
Major news broke Tuesday night (reported first by Mike Mulligan on suntimes.com): Jay Cutler has agreed to a contract extension that will keep the 26-year-old quarterback with the Bears at least through 2013 and make him one of the NFL's five highest-paid QBs. If you're a Bears fan, you have to be thrilled that there won't be any contractual controversy involving the team's franchise player for the foreseeable future.
The deal puts Cutler behind only Eli Manning of the New York Giants, Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Phillip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers in the QB money rankings. Cutler, 26, will get $20 million of the nearly $30 million extension guaranteed in the form of bonus money. He is still under contract through 2011 on the six-year, $47.86 million rookie deal he signed with the Broncos. This puts his deal where it belongs among the league's elite and leaves open his options of going back on the market as a 30-year-old with a chance for another huge deal. It also provides him security should there be a lockout in 2011.
OGOchoCinco @JayCutler6 they gave you an extension so you wouldn't tweet me back, damn I just got you paid, congrats.
JayCutler6 @OGOchoCinco haha...thanks man. I owe you.
OGOchoCinco headlines in the paper "ocho earns cutler an extension". the Interesting One continues 2 help out the world! ocho stimulus plan
OGOchoCinco @JayCutler6 funny, on a serious note congrats and it's deserved , you're one of thee best in the game hands down, let's have fun Sunday!!!
JayCutler6 @OGOchoCinco Thanks 85. See you Sunday.
A good investment for the Bears, right? Any downside to getting this done now and keeping the new face of the franchise happy? Our beat writer Brad Biggs points out on his blog how Cutler and Bears GM Jerry Angelo now are both signed through 2013.
In case you're not following either Cutler or flaky Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco on Twitter, here are some tweets they posted after the news was announced:
JayCutler6 Signed a 2 year extension. Thanks to the Bears, the McCaskey family and all the Bears fans for the support.
OGOchoCinco @JayCutler6 they gave you an extension so you wouldn't tweet me back, damn I just got you paid, congrats.
JayCutler6 @OGOchoCinco haha...thanks man. I owe you.
OGOchoCinco headlines in the paper "ocho earns cutler an extension". the Interesting One continues 2 help out the world! ocho stimulus plan
OGOchoCinco @JayCutler6 funny, on a serious note congrats and it's deserved , you're one of thee best in the game hands down, let's have fun Sunday!!!
JayCutler6 @OGOchoCinco Thanks 85. See you Sunday.
A good investment for the Bears, right? Any downside to getting this done now and keeping the new face of the franchise happy? Our beat writer Brad Biggs points out on his blog how Cutler and Bears GM Jerry Angelo now are both signed through 2013.
And how ironic that now it's the Broncos who have to worry about re-signing their soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, Kyle Orton, whose market value has to be soaring after the way his spectacular play has led Denver to a 6-0 start.
Well give Angelo credit for that. Cutler is a franchise QB. Now please, please get the man some Linemen to block for him!
Jay and Kyle are two good QBs. Both need a line, but Cutler is better and has big play ability and agility. Cutler will be the reason you win on many days and the reason you lose on some. He is a different kind of QB than Orton. Now as you can see, Orton can play the game. He makes the entire team better by playing SMART. Believe it or not, the Bears would have a better record right now if he was starting. We would have beaten Green Bay and Atlanta. Orton figures out a way to win and protects and manages the game better than Cutler. You might say he is smarter. He is tall in the pocket and does everything within himself to not turn the ball over. This is great regular season ball, but come playoff time, when often you need something extra/special Orton won't have it. To win, it will take the entire TEAM. Cutler would be able to be special at that time. Doesn't make a difference if you had Montana as your QB if you have no line and average receivers. I am sick of Greg Olsen getting caught everytime he catches the ball.
Yeah, what else is new for an inept Bears QB who hasn't produce much of anything.
Here it is Orton leading his team with six wins and no losses all while not being a jerk.
This guy Cutler is a jerk and with barely a 500 winning percentage gets a contract extension already. For what?
And you got the audacity to give a headline -It's All Good-
As a sports columnist your objectivity is apparently bias and so is Bears management. Briggs had to literally beg for elite money and don't tell me he is not in the class of Urlacher anymore.
Please don't give me that crap Culter brings excitement to the game either.
No wonder we don't have game changing big receivers to throw to or offensive linemen who can run block and pass block. We spend all the money on one player. Wait until his butt is sacked a bunch of times. We will see how he responds to his O-Line and new contract then.
Please, a contract extension and half the season have not been played.
I used to think Lovie, Hester and Briggs were being hasty or greedy. Don't ever tell me another Black coach or player is asking for too much money when they have produced and this chump hasn't done anything for the team yet.
Three wins and get a contract extension!!
Yeah, I went there!!
It's a good deal for the Bears and Cutler. Probably re-leaves Jay of a lot of unneeded pressure too. I can't wait till the Broncos overpays for Orton.
As far as the tweeting going on between Cutler and Ocho, I was a little dissapointed that Jay didn't go at it with Chad a bit more. That was some boring trash talk.
Anon - excellent race card play....took only 3 posts!!!
I'm sure Angelo and McCaskey were up there with their assessment of raises for black vs white players.
Racism used to be a scarlett letter...now it's a punch line in a joke. Sad actually...
I smell a Zambrano-esque deal in the making.
Hope I'm wrong (but I don't think so).
While I'm glad Cutler got his, he won't last long behind this O-line. And it would be nice to get him a RB who can gain more than 1.5 yds. a carry. A NFL caliber offensive coordinator would be nice too. The Bears have one piece of a very large puzzle.
so, it's not going to be Gaines Adams who saves Jerry's job?...
best to invest in some big uglies soon to put in front of him....I know that's a Big Duh, but...cartin off how ever many millions on a stretcher?... is now an even larger, glaring, ummm mushroom cloud?, if you will, of an issue....
...but this is ironic now that the season is in full swing
I think the receiving corp hasn't come close to their potential...wow, huh?..they're all like 12 except Dez...and although the TD drop was lame...Johnny Knox is special
and who knew...Bears offered and Jay Accepted...I was wrong
probably hear screams for Shanahan here pretty soon
Jay Cutler is the best thing to happen to Chicago sports for a very long time. Far from error-free, he makes throws only 4-5 other quarterbacks can make, and keeps the Bears in every game despite the score, and his own mistakes. Watching Bear football is exciting again, and as a fan since 1965 when Sayers and Butkus roamed Wrigley Field, it is so welcome. It may not be a smooth road ahead, but if the Bears can get the a couple of quality O-linemen--and maybe add one stud WR like Fitzgerald or Andre Johnson or Brandon Marshall--the championship potential is boundless. When is the last time there was this much energy around the Bears, with so much national attention? The '85 Bears with Jim McMahon is the answer. Give Cutler time to throw, and everything is possible.
Anonymous, since you are complaining about the race card being used, It has been deduced that you are bculz. You are so ashamed of the words that come out of your mouth that you are afraid to identify yourself?
Hitman...there should be a separate page for your posts,so we can match them into the proper topic. Perhaps then you will not be so misunderstood. At least you are sticking to your guns these days.
I don't know why we would scream for shanahan, do you? Knox is not
special. That is why he was picked in the 500th round...or so. We can dream. We can dream. You don't suppose that Robinson and Berrian were special too? Only in the sense that we have never really had a special receiver. So what would we know about it anyway?What do you mean? Hmmmm....lets ask.... How's all dem special players on the Raiders? Pretty special season they have going on . Special Coach. Special Owner,
Special 'Colliseum'. That is one pretty fuc^in special team they have there.
Now that I though about it out loud,I know what you mean by special now. We are are just one happy special group.
P.s. you should probably see a specialist.
My stinkin base salary PLUS incentives is a measley 1.5 mil!
What am I, an orphan?
Kyle Orphan?
Where's mine???
Whether you like Cutler or not, he's here now long term and it was a good signing. Better to get that over with now than contract talks becoming a distraction and a p.r. nightmare later on. And again, Kyle Orton is not here anymore so it's time to move on and accept that the Bears will live and die at the QB position with Cutler. I've always wished Orton the best and kudos to the 6-0 start, but it's not the Playoffs yet and we're not even halfway into the NFL season either. I hope he gets a nice contract eventually, but that's the Broncos problem to deal with. With the hockey season starting and NBA & NCAA hoops on the horizon, I certainly don't need to concern myself with another NFL team in a different AFC conference like the Denver Broncos. They have their own expectations and end-of-season issues to eventually deal with.
For anyone who hasn't noticed, Jay Cutler has done exceptionally well behind a 'OFFENSIVE' line that can't move the Seniors in a bingo line, and collapse in pass blocking faster than a card castle on Fullerton Beach on a windy day.
Someone mentioned earlier that his INTs have been with 'nobody' honing in on him, and that's a fact. Once this guys quits threading the needle when there's no pressure, our game will elevate.
He throws very well with no set feet, feels the pocket well and moves much 'QUICKER' than I could ever have imagined.
Pretty much any QB in the league can throw with precision when feeling comfortable around a stout offensive line (Brady, Orton, Favre, Manning, Ryan ect.), but I guarantee their wouldn't be too many, if any, that would be doing as well as Cutler behind this line.
His red-zone INTs have been killers, but I'm sure the best is yet to come. He deserves his due, as does Briggs and Brown on the other side of the ball. These three are the glue that's gonna hold this team together this year, for each and every one of those 11 regular season victories and beyond.
Go Bears!!!
I wondered at first why Cutler would sign now, since it has to be obvious to him that he ain't gonna win any championships with Lovie and Angelo running things.
But I guess there are two main reasons:
- It's pretty hard to say no when someone offers you an extra $20 million in guaranteed money (maybe another $10 million on top of that) to throw a football
- He probably realizes that he is gonna get physically beaten up pretty good the next few years due to Angelo's lack of ability to put a professional offensive line in front of him, so he might as well get as much money as he can right now. He is gonna be damaged goods by the end of 2011 (when the original contract ran out) and if he didn't sign the extension now, he probably wouldn't get that money in the future.
I have serious doubts that he will make it through the season the way things are going - he will certainly not finish the duration of the contract extension without looking like the 1976 version of Joe Namath at the end. He is taking some pretty ferocious hits on about half (maybe more) of the passing plays - and we are probably gonna have to pass a lot more going forward since we have no ability to run the ball.
So it looks like he decided to "take the money" rather than play for a team that has a chance, and I don't blame him - it's a business after all and he can only play for so long.
We can only hope that the success of Orton, Jones, Benson, Berrian, Gage, Columbo, etc., etc., etc......will lead to someone in ownership coming to the realization that the GM and head coach have no idea what they are doing....
stuck - "ashamed"....what, should I come up with a clever nickname like you?
I couldn't care less about what u think of my view - as I said, it's sad that narrow minded fools like you and the clown I commented on use a forum like this to spew about made up racial injustices. They do exist - unfortunately the more people like you and that clown invent them, real ones go ignored.
You live a sad life...I feel bad for you
Anon,
Please explain how Cutler is a jerk.
Tell me something he has done here or in Denver that makes him a jerk.
Give us an example.
The Bears gave up 2 first round picks for him and you are bitching because they extended his contract and have him locked up for years?
Would you be happy if they let him walk away so they can start the whole searching for a QB process all over again?
Lovie Smith got his money.
Tommie Harris got his money.
Lance Briggs got his money.
Muhsin Muhammad got his money.
Your rant about race is just that and not even a good one.
Stuck, Louis Murphy blocking for Zack Miller was s, p, ecial..
I should have a seperate page, you're right...not for your reasons, but you still own a #8 Bears Jersey and you know it....haha
if you razor off the top of the 8 you'll have a 6....that's savings if the OLine lets Cutler get creamed....buys ya time
and ummmm, Johnny Morris was a special receiver, dumbdumb
I have been saying this for 3 years now. You can pay Cutler 10 million a year and run Forte 50 times a game, but until you get rid of the worst offensive coordinator in the league, Ron Turner, the Bears offense will do just what it has done against GreenBay and Atlanta, not much.
Look at the runningbacks who left Chicago, Thomas Jones, 5th in the league in rushing, and Ced Benson 3rd. Look at Orton, he is excelling in a good system.
How is it with one of the best backs in the league, 2 good Tight ends, 3 decent receivers and a good QB, the Bears offense contiues to struggle just as it did last year? GET RID OF RON TURNER. He is clueless at best and refuses to open the game up. I will be saying the same thing at the end of this season too, if Turner stays on. WE ARE DOOMED to repeat our failures if we do not rid ourself of the offensive coaching disaster.
I wish I had a number 8 jersey, but the guy sellin them only had his Texans jersey...so that is what I am wearing right now. hmmmmmm....I am talking to hitman in a thread about a contract......you are very ironic in this thread. I should be careful what I say bout you. I'll be back.
Anonymous...you have not posted any views...but it is obvious your mind is not capable of developing intellectual views and opinions. You are
'stuck' belittling people.
I occasionally post a view on a given topic...and also take exception to ignorant comments and will call them out like above. That's not "belittling" people...I can't help it if they post ignorant, uneducated and po'd at the world views.
I am so sorry Stuck. I am the ignorant uneducated person. I am also
po'd at the world because my home is a cardboard box. Please someone
hire me to be a NFL coach. I have been doing it in the pewee's for 5 years now. Why can't you see my talent? It can't be that much harder.
I have a whole composition book of plays. If only you would give me Tom Brady as QB. There would be nothing I couldn't do.
Stuck, you blessed pariah of a man. You are always right,and put
my opinions to shame. Will you ever please forgive me? Please do.