Being that Jay Cutler was a Denver Bronco at the time, I really didn't pay any attention to any stories about him at the Pro Bowl.  But with the lingering media attention over his 'maturity', or possible lack thereof, with the unraveling of his relationship with the Broncos, I decided to have a look-see into what other pros and coaches thought of him as a player and coworker.

Here's an interesting tale, in light of Tony Dungy's criticism of Cutler's maturity:
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_11630573

Peyton Manning and others decided to have some laughs and throw Cutler into the swimming pool.  They took his cellphone away, but ended up frying his blood-sugar monitor:

"It was a bad audible on our part," Manning said. "I think we were thinking right, trying to get the cellphone. Then we realize, the guy gets insulin shots. We missed that."

Well, that's REALLY mature.  I'm not knocking an innocent prank, but Manning thinks far enough ahead to get Jay's cellphone to safety, but forgets he's a diabetic who might wear a monitor?  At least Peyton is 'football smart', I guess.

But more important than the hijinks is Cutler's attitude at the Pro Bowl, and how the other players and coaches felt about having him around.  Obviously he's a good enough guy, and 'mature' enough, that opposing players felt no qualms about tossing him in the drink.

And here are some more snippets:

He has made a favorable impression here, and not just poolside.

Cutler said hold on, here. Collins is 36, a 14-year NFL veteran invited to only his second Pro Bowl. Cutler insisted Collins play ahead of him.

"We're all out here in Hawaii having a good time," Dielman said. "We'll deal with that during the season. Jay's a good dude. Philip's a good dude. They're two competitors. That's what happens when you have two competitors going at each other."

 I've challenged a few of my non-Bear friends to provide me with any articles pertaining to Jay Cutler's immaturity on the field, in the huddle, in the locker room, or at team meetings.  None have followed through.  I'd also be very interested to see Mike Shanahan's opinion of the trade, but I can locate no quotes on the matter from him.

Here's another with mentions of Jay, McDaniels, Manning, and others:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090207/SPORTS04/902070383/-1

"I haven't talked to (McDaniels) yet, but I'm kind of eager to see what we can do together," Cutler said. "The decision was made and it was made with the best interest of the team in mind so we just have to wait and see."

Asomugha agreed: "I've always felt like Jay was the toughest quarterback for me to go against in the AFC. He's a real confident guy, throws a real nice ball and he's got some targets and he always seems to do well against us so I've got a lot of respect for him."

 And here's an interesting article from Jan 1, 2009:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2009Jan01/0,4670,FBNBroncosCoachingSearch,00.html

"I talked to Jay Cutler, and Jay understood ... I didn't get any negative feedback," Bowlen said. "I think he understands enough about the business of football, the game of football, that there are going to be coaching changes and changes in organizations. I didn't sense that Jay had any negative feelings about it, and I'm sure he is very interested in who is going to be the next head coach. Obviously, he is 'The Man' around here now, so I will be talking with Jay."

Bowlen acknowledges that Jay is 'The Man', and then allows his new head coach to shop him around?  That's downright peculiar.

Best of all, I located Bernie Lincicome's website!  He is one of my favorite sportswriters of all time, and he puts folks like Rick Morrissey TO SHAME.  Since the demise of the Rocky Mountain News, he has been writing on his own site.  What does he think of the Jay Cutler trade?

http://www.bernielincicome.com/mywords/?m=20090316

Let’s weigh it all. Pro Bowl quarterback. Pot Luck.

Who in his right mind does not go with Pro Bowl quarterback?

In five years Jay Cutler will have led whichever team he is quarterbacking to a championship, maybe a Super Bowl title.

Unless it is Detroit.

And, following the trade, an article entitled "Great Arm, Mediocre Head":

http://www.bernielincicome.com/mywords/?p=274

The Bears now have the best quarterback in the NFC, no insult to Drew Brees. And they have him for the next decade. The Broncos should check and see if they still have their wallets and underwear.

I realize some of this may be old news or have been linked before, but with the perpetual comments from talking heads like Tony Dungy, I think it's entirely fair to look back and provide examples to the contrary.  As far as I know, Tony Dungy has never coached Jay Cutler.  Why didn't Dungy coach Cutler at the Pro Bowl this season?  Because he couldn't beat the 8-8 San Diego Chargers in the playoffs, let alone win 2 games in the playoffs in order to get into the AFC Championship game as John Harbaugh did.

Greetings.  I apologize if this is a repeat topic, I searched the archives and did not see anything similar.

In all the various attempts to evaluate the Jay Cutler-Kyle Orton etc. trade, I read much about the respective OLs, WRs, RBs, and TEs of the Chicago Bears and (or versus) the Denver Broncos.  But for some reason, there was never much discussion of the special teams.  I couldn't help but harken back to that Bears-Broncos game of November 2007, when Devin Hester returned both a punt and a kickoff for a TD, and Charles Tillman's critical punt-block set up a tying score after the Bears were down by 14 late in the game.

Then I found this link on Stampede Blue - an Indianapolis Colts sbnation blog - in which the author calculated the average starting field position - offensive and defensive - for every team in the NFL over the last 5 to 8 years.  (The article was written earlier this month.)  Towards the bottom you can click through the link to look at the compiled 5 years' worth of data.  I expected that the Bears would be among the leaders, but I didn't know where the Broncos would end up.  Suffice it to say (or write, in this case), I was completely surprised.

The Bears were # 1 in the NFL, with an average starting field position of their own 33.6 yard-line.  The Broncos, on the other hand, were # 31 in the NFL starting at their own 28.6 yard-line.  That's a difference of 5 yards - PER DRIVE!  Each team gets about 12 drives per game.  The Bears' special teams and defense (in the case of punts) - on average - make the field 5 yards shorter for Jay Cutler than the Broncos did.  And Kyle Orton's field just got 5 yards longer.  (Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns; but  Bears' ST Coach Dave Toub and all of the ST skill position players - Hester, Manning, Gould, etc - are still with the team.)

The more this charade of a coaching search goes on, the more that John Paxson makes me long for Jerry Krause.  And I didn't think that would be possible.  Nobody is a bigger Paxson supporter than me, nobody is rooting for him to succeed more than me.

But Paxson and the Bulls front office have a Mole.  That's all there is to it.  How can these constant news reports keep showing up in the media, when the local beat writers (like the incomparable KC Johnson) couldn't find a story if one fell out of a building onto their parked car? 

Say what you will about Jerry Krause - he ran a closed-door shop and kept things close to the vest.  The stories about Doug Collins' firing 20 years ago were all about how it was such a surprise, and how his firing came about in a 'cloaked atmosphere'.  We all joked around by calling Krause 'The Sleuth', but he never would've allowed his team and his candidates to be dragged through the media and embarrassed like this.

Collins NEVER should've had to appear in front of the microphones, answering questions on the Bulls' coaching gig while he hadn't yet really interviewed.  Now we're treated to the 'fact' that he's no longer part of the process going forward.  WTF?  Why do we know these things?  As much as I love the Bulls, I find it totally counterproductive to have our laundry done in front of the rest of the NBA and the world. 

If Paxson is waiting to interview coaches who are still coaching (in the Finals), then he should've said so and set this expectation weeks or months ago.  After he fired Boylan he should've said that he didn't anticipate hiring a coach until after the Finals and before the draft.  Maybe he did actually say this but it's been lost in all the noise coming out of the Berto Center for the past month or so.

Pax, you have a mole.  Find them and deal with them accordingly.  Stop allowing them to embarrass you, your coaching candidates, your owner, your players, and your fans.  We want you to find your soulmate, John.  We just don't want to read about all the dalliances, one-night-stands, and messy break-ups until then.

Do we?  Maybe I'm only speaking for myself.