The Chicago Bears, Marc Trestman, Jay Cutler and friends were once again punching bags for the Sunday NFL punditocracy once again yesterday. Hey, they’ve earned it. We start with Fox:
Randy Moss believes that the trouble with the Chicago Bears falls on the Head Coach Marc Trestman: “This is on the shoulders of the head coach, Trestman. It seems like he’s lost control of that locker room. You want guys to come in and fight for you each week but after the performance I saw from the Green Bay game, guys don’t want to fight for Coach Trestman.”
Jimmy Johnson says there may be changes for the Chicago Bears, but they likely will not include quarterback Jay Cutler: “What do you say about a team that is supposed to be a contender and they’ve lost five of their last six? They were down 42-0 versus a division rival. Well, this league is a quarterback-driven league. Jay Cutler, with his contract, is not going to be cut and he is not going to be traded. He needs to be a leader. You can’t just play well, you have to be a leader.”
We now shift to ESPN
Inside Slant: Andy Dalton and Jay Cutler, elite money, poor play – when highly-paid quarterbacks underperform …
Keyshawn Johnson: “At the time (of his contract) with jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears, they couldn’t have gone and gotten a better quarterback, so they elected to pay Jay Cutler. At the time he was playing better. You figured, okay, he’d turned the corner. Since then, he has regressed. If I’m a player and I’m inside that locker room and I’m his teammate, I am going to let him know. We are paying you a lot of money to get us over the top, because I am going to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Tom Jackson: “The difference is, they touch the football every down. They have control of the football team. You are talking about availability – who is available? … A lot of times, you get the guy who gets the money and that guy becomes one of the great players of all time. There is also an opposite way the players can go, and you cannot know that as an organization until you pay them?
Ray Lewis: “They may touch it every play, but the linebacker position finds it every play … It is really embarrassing that a lot of guys that work hard in this league and never see pay days like that. You take these guys who haven’t done anything in this game, and you give these guys a $100-plus million.”
Finally, NFL Network
– “At the quarterback position, your job is to make everyone around you better, whether that is on the field or whether that is socializing with everybody, or just making everybody feel connected. I just don’t see that Jay Cutler is doing that in Chicago.” – Michael Robinson on Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler
– “It’s never been about his arm or his talent. It’s always been about from the shoulders up.” – Shaun O’Hara on Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler
– “How has Brandon Marshall been held under 50 yards in six of their nine games? How is he not more involved? How do you not get Brandon Marshall the football more? I put that on Jay Cutler, I put that on Marc Trestman, and I also put that on Brandon Marshall. He is an elite receiver in the NFL. You cannot disappear during games.” – Shaun O’Hara on Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2