Jay Cutler and Robbie Gould are the remaining links to the Bears' last playoff team, the one that reached the NFC championship game in 2011.
The postseason drought has lasted a half-decade and there isn't much in the way of national buzz for the Bears, which can happen after consecutive last-place finishes in the NFC North. The team that reported to training camp at Olivet Nazarene on Wednesday isn't going to let that define the season. Nor should it.
"Whenever you're coming off losing seasons back to back like that, that's kind of how it goes," Cutler said.
General manager Ryan Pace and coach John Fox were upbeat in a quick media session. How this season goes will be interesting. The idea that the schedule could be a little easier than 2015 overlooks the fact the division will be very challenging, one of the best.
The buzz, as cars, trucks and SUVs were unloaded in front of the dorms, seemed to focus on an improved front seven for the defense. It could be significantly better if the pass rush steps up. Pace doesn't anticipate any bad vibes from Alshon Jeffery after the team and wide receiver couldn't hammer out a multiyear contract to avoid the franchise tag. That's a good thing as Jeffery enters another contract year.
Even as they transition to offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, Fox is more comfortable with Cutler after arriving with questions a year ago. The coach inherited a new quarterback in Year 2 at his previous stops, getting Jake Delhomme in 2003 with the Panthers and Peyton Manning in 2012 with the Broncos. The Bears are all-in with Cutler, who enters Year 8 with the franchise.
"I had questions on everybody," Fox said. "You come in, you take a job, you evaluate and you have to make decisions oftentimes before you even meet somebody in Year 1 as a head coach or general manager. They could be robots for all you know. But the game is still about people and relationships. I will say this: At the conclusion of the whole season working with Jay, I was very impressed. So I feel way more confident about him."
The new regime didn't kowtow to Cutler when it arrived. Pace and Fox took a wait-and-see approach with him last season instead of heaping praise on him. Remember when head coach candidates Marc Trestman and Bruce Arians met with Cutler, and the wrong candidate was hired? Then there was the time Mike Martz flew to Nashville to meet with Cutler before being hired as offensive coordinator.
Now Cutler has to deliver. His contract runs through 2020, but this is the final year of the deal that includes guaranteed money. He posted a career-best passer rating of 92.3 last season, middle of the pack league-wide. At 33, he has to see if he can take his game to a higher level, and a healthy Jeffery and the emergence of Kevin White ought to aid that cause. If not, the Bears at least have to consider options that aren't on the roster after this season. They can't keep waiting around having way more than doubled down on Jerry Angelo's 2009 trade to see if it will pay off.
Cutler is on his third GM and third coach and his staying power is remarkable considering how quickly regimes and coaching staffs can be blown out in the NFL. Since the current postseason format was adopted in 1990, 51 quarterbacks have started 90 or more regular-season games. Cutler ranks 20th with 134. He has just two playoff starts. Of the other 50 quarterbacks on the list, only Jon Kitna (one), Jim Everett (zero, but five playoff starts in the 1980s), Ryan Fitzpatrick (0) and Jeff Blake (0) have fewer.
Perhaps things will fall into place and the Bears will have a breakthrough season. Maybe the Bears won't reach the playoffs this year, but Cutler excels. Either would be a step in the right direction for a team that has been guilty of coddling him far too much in the past. Those days are over. Mid-30s career spikes can happen for quarterbacks, including this one who was a young gun when he arrived.
"I was looking at the roster a couple of weeks ago and I feel like there's been a major shift in experience _ especially on the offensive side," Cutler said. "I'm at (Year) 11 and then you look down, there's a couple of nines, a couple of eights and mostly five and under, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's new energy and new attitude. I've embraced it. It's a good group right now."
