The Chicago Bears are coming off of a much-needed bye week and heading into Monday night football the team is in solid position in the NFC North, but they need to win over the Packers and as the trade deadline comes on Tuesday at 4 pm, would the team ever consider trading quarterback Jay Cutler?
This again, is a hypothetical question, as the Bears should NOT trade their quarterback at this point in the season since he is expected to return from a groin injury soon, but if the team was, let's say 2-1, or 1-6 instead of the 4-3 they are, would that question come up? The Bears opted to pull the Ravens-Joe Flacco contract move, as they allowed their quarterback to enter the season without an extension and put him on track to be a free agent at the end of the season.
Teams do this for a number of reasons with their players at times, like the Ravens, who had hoped to get a better deal than what Flacco's agent was asking for (yeah, that backfired), while other teams often times want to ensure themselves the chance to make moves after the season. When this situation comes up, it also can bring up questions of confidence like with a coach on a one-year deal, basically saying: if you like him and he's your guy, why not give him and extension? Some people speculated about that at the beginning of the season with Cutler and now that he is injured again and the trade deadline is coming up, do the Bears have any options? A writer on NFL.com posited that in free agency, teams like the Buccaneers, Raiders (maybe not anymore with Pryor looking good) and the Jaguars should think about overpaying for Cutler in free agency to get themselves a quarterback.
While that is a tough situation to deal with on all sides, it isn't crazy logic, as those teams are all dealing with QB issues and finding someone with Cutler's talent level isn't easy. I mean just look at the Rams, they were calling Tim Tebow and Brett Favre rather than grabbing someone off the street or on a practice squad, which should say enough about how bad the pool is for quarterbacks right now.
The deal obviously doesn't make sense for the Bears, but let's say they didn't see Cutler as their guy, would it be worth it? Cutler has put up enough good stats to warrant a decent draft pick, but it could be tough to get one of those teams to do it at this juncture. The Bears lost last week and actually looked okay with Josh McCown playing for him and now he will be out for at least four weeks. If Marc Trestman and the front office isn't sold, could a deal go down and would it be so crazy?
Cutler was traded once before while coming off of a 4,000 yards and 25 touchdown season and now that he has 1,658 yards and 12 touchdowns, could someone step up? The answer is no on both parts, but the situation is interesting for both the Bears and the other teams. The Bears will get something for him if he leaves as a free agent, but they could get more if they trade him now, although I don't think that would be a smart move. The team is still alive in the North at 4-3, but that starts with a win on MNF against the 5-2 Packers.
