Thread: "Jay Cutler on verge of pulling Bears off ugly list"

This is a great read IMHO.

LINK to the article
Jay Cutler on verge of pulling Bears off ugly list

Joe Namath did it way back in 1967. Peyton Manning has done it 11 times. Six quarterbacks have done it four or more times.


Trent Green did it twice, and even maligned passers such as Bill Kenney and Scott Mitchell passed for 4,000 yards in a season.


And for Bear fans, this stat may be the most painful: The team with the most 4,000-yard passers is the Green Bay Packers, who have had Lynn Dickey, Don Majkowski, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers do it.


Forty-six NFL quarterbacks have topped 4,000 yards. Zero have been a Chicago Bear.


The Bears are one of four teams to never have a quarterback throw for 4,000 yards. That fact, for all you NFL stat-watchers, is about to change.


“I’m ready for special things this year,” Jay Cutler told reporters earlier this summer.


So am I.


Many believed the Bears were ready for special things three years ago. They thought Cutler, wh had thrown for 4,526 yardwith the Broncos in 2008, would immediately erase Chicago from that short and ugly list.


Cutler’s final season in Denver was the 27th best season of all time. Although he regressed a bit in his first three years in Chicago, it wasn’t all his fault. And things have certainly changed this offseason.


Offensive coordinator Mike Martz is gone; Cutler is healthy again, and says he feels as good as he ever has; he’s planning to get married, expecting his first child and has two new receivers in three-time Pro Bowler Brandon Marshall and second-round draft pick Alshon Jeffery.


Now, it’s truly time for a Chicago quarterback to break that 4,000-yard barrier. Cutler showed us that he has the capability with the way he was playing before he broke his thumb after Chicago’s 7-3 start last year. Chicago had scored at least 30 points in five out of the last seven games before losing Cutler.


Cutler has averaged 3,086 yards in three seasons as a Bear, though last year’s was cut six games short by the broken thumb. His best in Chicago was 3,666 yards in 2009, second on the all-time Bears’ passer list.
Not that we need more proof that Chicago’s QB woes are real, here’s some: Erik Kramer’s Chicago record of 3,838 yards is only 139th in the NFL’s all-time rankings.


It’s time. It’s time for the Bears to break into the age of the aerial assault. It’s time for Cutler to pull them off that nasty list with a 4,000-yard season, and bring them into the modern age of football (once and for all).
Jay Taft covers the Chicago Bears for the Rockford Register Star. Reach him at 815-987-1384 or jtaft@rrstar.com.