Bears QB Demotion: Cutler Will Have More Time to Smoke
Jay Cutler is a No. 2.
See what we did there. The Bears starting QB Jay Cutler has been playing like crap. So ultimately, Bears Head Coach Marc Trestman decided to bench the overpaid and comically unenthusiastic Cutler in favor of backup Jimmy Clausen. Clausen will get his first Bears start against the Detroit Lions on Sunday. After Thursday’s practice, Trestman expressed his reasoning for Cutler demotion. He said,
As I told our team today, this doesn’t void us of our offensive struggles that we have or the team struggles that we have by making this change. And I think our guys are well aware of that. But for the present moment, I think this is in the best interest of our football team. I can’t speak for Jay but I know him well enough to know, this is obviously not a good time for him.
Cutler’s reaction on whether he saw his demotion coming was, “Shocked, I think, at first, and then disappointed. I didn’t see it coming. But I think any time you lose a lot of games and you don’t play as well as you hoped, there’s a chance it could happen.” The former starting quarterback at Vanderbilt must be taking some reality television acting lessons from his wife, Kristin Cavallari because we’ve never seen show emotion before, especially SHOCK.
Don’t Touch Jimmy
Sunday will be Clausen’s latest chance to live up to his college hype. The second-round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers and three-year starter for Notre Dame has had a rocky start to his pro career. In Carolina, he butted heads with veteran WR Steve Smith and then was benched after three starts. Within two years, his Panther tenure was over. He signed with the Bears in 2014 and competed for the backup QB role. We’ll see if this California boy who has been labeled a ‘punk,’ can lead a team to victory.
Additional reporting for this post came from Chicago Tribune.