Another season, another impo sibly dumb quarterback controversy in Chicago. By now, it's almost turned into tradition.Continually during 's tenure with the , he's been forced to watch perpetually awful quarterbacks like Caleb Hanie, , and even come close to stealing his job. They've all ultimately failed in that endeavor and Cutler's managed to survive as the Bears' quarterback, until now it appears. Add another name to the list of usurpers. This time, it's who's making a push to supplant Cutler with Cutler on the sidelines due to a Hoyer, who the Bears signed this offseason as Cutler's backup, helped guide the team to its first win of the season against the haple s on Sunday. And suddenly, the idea of Hoyer keeping the starting job
Robert Mastrosimone Kids Jersey after Cutler regains his health is catching on like wildfire. On Monday, Bears coach John Fox indicated that Hoyer is playing well enough to continue on as the starter. "It's performance-based," "So anybody that's performing well, I don't think we're going to be likely to change." To be clear, he didn't name Hoyer the starter for the Bears' upcoming game against the . Fox, who always seems to prefer to keep reporters and the public in the dark about personnel decisions, simply refused to commit to Cutler. "We'll evaluate it just like we do every position on the football team," Fox said. "I think Jay has played a lot of good football. In fact, in the cutups watching Detroit in last year's two games, I thought he played pretty well. We'll evaluate it like everything. Right now, I don't like getting into speculation and predictions, because we'll know more on Wednesday." What more does Fox have to know, besides the state of Cutler's thumb? If Cutler is healthy, he deserves to start. It's that simple.
Patrik Nemeth Kids Jersey This idea that Hoyer needs to keep playing because he's outplaying Cutler is misleading -- misleading because of the circumstances in which Hoyer's played. According to Pro Football Focus, Hoyer's been under pre sure on 26.7 percent of his dropbacks. Cutler's been under pre sure on 47.3 percent of his dropbacks. There is a difference between throwing pa ses from this kind of pocket: And this complete lack of a pocket: Hoyer supporters will point to his yardage totals. In each of his past two starts, he's thrown for a little more than 300 yards. Yet, it's important to consider that it took him 49 pa s attempts to reach 300 yards in a game the won handily. Many of those yards were gained with the
Kris Draper Kids Jersey score already out of hand. It's also important to consider that his 300-yard performance this past weekend came against the Lions. He played well in that game, but he played well in circumstances that Cutler wasn't given in the first two games of the year. The Bears, who played the and league-leading defense to open up the season, shuffled their offensive line on the eve of the season when they acquired . Rookie , who spent the summer practicing at left guard, quickly transitioned to
Gordie Howe Jersey center. He struggled initially, but he's dramatically improved now -- not that Cutler would know.Hoyer supporters also might point to his interception count: 0. While Cutler has thrown two picks this season, one occurred because ran the wrong route. The other happened, because he couldn't grip the football with his sprained thumb. He then pulled himself out of the game because he knew he was hurting his team. Judging Cutler after those two games is silly. It's especially silly to judge either quarterback after two games given they're both veterans with nearly 20 seasons between the two of them. At this point, we know enough about each quarterback. Cutler is a solid starter and Hoyer is a solid backup. That's all there is to this. It's not as if the Bears backup is a young, developmental quarterback who might take over for Cutler in the long-term. The Bears' long-term solution at quarterback is definitely not Hoyer, so they should play the quarterback who gives them the best chance to win this year -- that's Cutler. Maybe Fox
Luke Witkowski Kids Jersey is just trying to keep the Bears' future opponents off balance. Maybe, once Cutler is healthy, Fox will hand him the keys to the offense. Maybe we're all reading too much into something Fox said at a pre s conference. Maybe Fox doesn't even know what he'll do when Cutler's back. For now, I'll leave you with this quote, which Cutler said after he finished off a career-year that allowed him to hang around in Chicago for another year. "Still here," Cutler told in January. "Everybody's kind of probably taken a shot to get rid of me. It hasn't worked so far."There's a reason Cutler always survives. He's the Bears' best quarterback. Don't count him out just yet.
