Bears re-sign Jay Cutler - 7 years, $126 million with $54M guaranteed

[RobertWeathers]

Flacco took over for a Ravens team that went 5-11 the year before he arrived.

Since then he has played in every single game and led them to seasons of;
11-5
9-7
12-4
12-4
10-6
8-8 (that could have been a winning season if not for the cheap shot in game #14 when they were 8-6.

He has led his team to the playoffs in each of his first five years and had a fair amount of success, including a SB win and two knockouts of the Pats at Gillette.

I understand that Cutler deserves the criticism that he's getting, but not Flacco, and certainly not by fans of our team.

On this board I'm on record as saying Flacco is a pretty good QB. I put him below the Bradys because he can't take over games on a consistent basis like they can but hes above the Cutlers and the Jeff Georges of the world because he knows how to win and puts the team before his own numbers.

Since Flacco's rookie year, he has benefited from having a defense that in terms of points allowed has ranked 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 12th and 12th. So essentially, all BAL needs him to do is manage the game and not make mistakes- which for the most part he has done very well. Hes made every start in his career and allows BAL to compete by giving them solid QB play game in, game out.

I am talking out of both sides of my mouth here as while I think his numbers are mediocre, hes not a talent like Brady and historically has a lot of talent around him that allows him to manage games, he is a good QB because he shows up every day, his team plays hard for him and hes done very well in the playoffs in the last two years.

 

[pheenix11]

The problem is that outside of the top 5 QB's the gradual drop off in salary is not corresponding to the enormous drop off in talent. Once you get outside the Manning, Brees, Rodgers and Bradys of the world and get into the 2nd tier there isn't a helluva lot of difference among them.

Bears made a huge mistake committing so much money to this stiff. Just another example of why we are so lucky to have Belichick. We all ***** and complain when he lets guys walk a year too early and trades one pick this year for two next year but the man is a genius when it comes to creating a competitive team for the long term.

Meanwhile the Bears just assured themselves of irrelevancy for the next 7 years.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

Flacco took over for a Ravens team that went 5-11 the year before he arrived.

Since then he has played in every single game and led them to seasons of;
11-5
9-7
12-4
12-4
10-6
8-8 (that could have been a winning season if not for the cheap shot in game #14 when they were 8-6.

He has led his team to the playoffs in each of his first five years and had a fair amount of success, including a SB win and two knockouts of the Pats at Gillette.

I understand that Cutler deserves the criticism that he's getting, but not Flacco, and certainly not by fans of our team.

Flacco vs Cutler... the poor man's Brady vs Manning.

 

[fair catch fryar]

And the NFL is wondering why the playoff games aren't selling out in markets like Green Bay. Combine the price to go to a game(and not just the ticket price) with the reason why the prices keep going up and this is precisely where we end up. They may think that their popularity is so great that it doesn't matter, but the well will go dry at some point and this is just a small sign IMO.

 

[jmt57]

It amazes me that a Pats fan would call Flacco mediocre. If not for a dirty play by the Lions (who else) he may have knocked us out of the playoffs yet again.

How much of Baltimore's success over the last six years is due to Flacco, and how much should be attributed to his teammates? Personally I would give more of the credit to the latter.

 

[Christiancat]

Yeah, I just think that we've seen so many prime examples of this anymore that it's hard to think otherwise, so that's why I feel this way. Time and time again we've had this exact discussion, and while your stance makes perfect sense on many levels, it's just not what seems to be happening in today's NFL.

As I said in my earlier post, I believe we'll probably having this discussion with guys like Andy Dalton, Cam Newton, Ryan Tannehill, etc down the road too. Just think about what Michael Vick received at one point, it was certainly comparable to the average or better starting QBs of the league. The reality is that most of them haven't won much of anything outside of Brady, Brees, Manning(s), Rodgers, Roethlisberger, and Flacco.

That leaves a lot of capable QBs in spots 8-18 or so for your next 10 selections. You could even go all the way up to QBs 1-20 if you chose to, and it'd likely be a lot of the same either now or in the near future. It won't stop these discussions from happening every time though

Correction Supa, Philip Rivers has been to the playoffs 6 times in his 10 years in the NFL. Rivers made the playoffs in 2004,2006,2007,2008,2009, and this season classified under 2013. Philip Rivers became the starter for the Chargers in 2006. Compared to Jay Cutler being in the NFL for 8 years and only making the playoffs 1 time.

 

[PP2]

The problem is that outside of the top 5 QB's the gradual drop off in salary is not corresponding to the enormous drop off in talent. Once you get outside the Manning, Brees, Rodgers and Bradys of the world and get into the 2nd tier there isn't a helluva lot of difference among them.

Bears made a huge mistake committing so much money to this stiff. Just another example of why we are so lucky to have Belichick. We all ***** and complain when he lets guys walk a year too early and trades one pick this year for two next year but the man is a genius when it comes to creating a competitive team for the long term.

Meanwhile the Bears just assured themselves of irrelevancy for the next 7 years.

More like three years (before the contract becomes a year-by-year proposition), but the amount they are paying him in those three years is ridiculous.

But the Bears are at fault for not looking ahead and keeping track of the anticipated market at the time Cutler's old contract expired. As it is, the contract expired at the same time the QB market became dilute, which put the ball into Cutler's court.

It does makes you think why they didn't negotiate more aggressively, knowing they had McCown in their back pocket (and who actually had better numbers than Cutler this year).

 

[Deus Irae]

It amazes me that a Pats fan would call Flacco mediocre. If not for a dirty play by the Lions (who else) he may have knocked us out of the playoffs yet again.

I'm not sure why you're amazed when people call a mediocre QB mediocre. Flacco is a mediocre QB who was playing on a team that had an excellent defense. His numbers, the team numbers, and the eye test all bear that out.

 

[Deus Irae]

I have visited forums of a lot of the NFL teams since this news broke and one thing i found common with fans of all the teams was


They are all jumping with joy. Yes, the bears fans are joyous as they feel Cutler is their savior, and the rest of the NFL is happy as they know the Bears have sealed their fate for the next 7 years.

To be fair to the Bears, it's a 7 year contract, but it's only an anchor for 3 years.

 

[supafly]

Compared to Jay Cutler being in the NFL for 8 years and only making the playoffs 1 time.

Thanks for the correction. We can safely remove Rivers off of that list then, as he has more than the usual 1-2-3 playoff appearances that are the criteria for the discussion. BUT....

It still doesn't remove all of the recent higher priced QB contract extensions of 100+ million (or 15+ million AAV salary extensions) who haven't led their teams to more than 1-2 total playoff appearances, and/or very little wins/success like:

--Tony Romo

--Matthew Stafford

--Matt Ryan

--Jay Cutler

--Mark Sanchez (was NFL's 7th highest paid QB at the time of extension)

As I said, I would imagine that we'll be having this same conversation in the future with guys like Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and Ryan Tannehill.

Playoff victories and overall postseason success hasn't been nearly as important with these "market value" franchise QB deals as some would believe. There have been a good number of franchise QBs who haven't led their teams to much of anything, but who are still making north of 15+ million dollars as the current/future franchise QBs for their teams.

Football is a team game, and while some of these QBs probably don't deserve their pacts, it's just the way that it is in today's NFL. A premium is placed on franchise QBs, and it isn't quite as easy to replace them with automatic draft picks as many here assume.

You keep speaking of Cutler's 1/8 yrs playoff appearances, and yet Tony Romo only has 2/10 yrs; however Romo has an all-time QB rating directly in line with that of Tom Brady (around 95-96), recently had the NFL's all-time highest 4th quarter QB rating in the history of the game, and has completed 2/3rds of all his passes. Unfortunately, his problems seem to be in the last 5 minutes or so of the game, but the organization obviously believes that he's the best man for the job regardless. Football is a TEAM game, and the fact remains that most of the 32 franchises are going to want a "franchise QB" who they believe can lead them to competitive seasons, even if they haven't done that well enough in the past.

I'm not claiming that I believe all of these decisions with 100+ million long-term extensions are the proper way to go, but I am claiming that we've had plenty of patterns to go on, and shouldn't act so surprised every time it happens....we may as well just have a permanent "sticky" thread that says "______ NFL team screwed up by signing their QB to a big extension," because it's surprising to me that so many make such a big deal about it after seeing it happen so many times in every single year, specifically lately.

 

[Christiancat]

Thanks for the correction. We can safely remove Rivers off of that list then, as he has more than the usual 1-2-3 playoff appearances that are the criteria for the discussion. BUT....

It still doesn't remove all of the recent higher priced QB contract extensions of 100+ million (or 15+ million AAV salary extensions) who haven't led their teams to more than 1-2 total playoff appearances, and/or very little wins/success like:

--Tony Romo

--Matthew Stafford

--Matt Ryan

--Jay Cutler

--Mark Sanchez (was NFL's 7th highest paid QB at the time of extension)

As I said, I would imagine that we'll be having this same conversation in the future with guys like Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and Ryan Tannehill.

Playoff victories and overall postseason success hasn't been nearly as important with these "market value" franchise QB deals as some would believe. There have been a good number of franchise QBs who haven't led their teams to much of anything, but who are still making north of 15+ million dollars as the current/future franchise QBs for their teams.

Football is a team game, and while some of these QBs probably don't deserve their pacts, it's just the way that it is in today's NFL. A premium is placed on franchise QBs, and it isn't quite as easy to replace them with automatic draft picks as many here assume.

You keep speaking of Cutler's 1/8 yrs playoff appearances, and yet Tony Romo only has 2/10 yrs; however Romo has an all-time QB rating directly in line with that of Tom Brady (around 95-96), recently had the NFL's all-time highest 4th quarter QB rating in the history of the game, and has completed 2/3rds of all his passes. Unfortunately, his problems seem to be in the last 5 minutes or so of the game, but the organization obviously believes that he's the best man for the job regardless. Football is a TEAM game, and the fact remains that most of the 32 franchises are going to want a "franchise QB" who they believe can lead them to competitive seasons, even if they haven't done that well enough in the past.

I'm not claiming that I believe all of these decisions with 100+ million long-term extensions are the proper way to go, but I am claiming that we've had plenty of patterns to go on, and shouldn't act so surprised every time it happens....we may as well just have a permanent "sticky" thread that says "______ NFL team screwed up by signing their QB to a big extension," because it's surprising to me that so many make such a big deal about it after seeing it happen so many times in every single year, specifically lately.

In regards to Matt Ryan: he's been in the nfl for 6 years and made the playoffs 4 times. He made the playoffs in 2008, 2010,2011, and 2012. Not too shabby, so I could see why the falcons gave him a 100+ million dollar contract. Matt stafford has been in the NFL 5 years and only had one playoff appearance. Definitely not worth the 100+ Million contract. Tony romo 2 playoff appearances in his 10 year career. Tony romo is talented, but chokes in the most crucial parts of the game. Not worth the 100+ million dollar contract. Mark Sanchez is not worth his 58 million dollar contract. He only made the playoffs 2 times(2009 and 2010) in his 5 years in the NFL.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Tony Romo is a complete enigma. I try not to get bogged down in stats but the man consistently put up outstanding numbers but in the games crucial moments, he is remarkably inconsistent.