Bears Have Proven They Learned From Errors of Jay Cutler Era

People remain upset about the way things went during the Jay Cutler era. The Chicago Bears had what looked like a genuine star talent on their hands and thanks to a series of blunders blew their chance to take advantage before the roster began to fall apart. If only they'd done things differently. Done it the right way. That's the thing though. The Bears weren't exactly clued in on what the "right way" actually was. There's a reason they've had such lackluster success cultivating quarterbacks for decades. It hasn't been built into their franchise legacy. This is an organization of defense, of running the football and winning through intimidation. Knowing how unprepared they were, it shouldn't be a shock they made so many mistakes with Cutler. It would've been a bigger surprise if everything went smoothly. Thus here the Bears are again. Another promising young quarterback in the midst with Mitch Trubisky. Can they get it right this time? To do so they must recall three vital lessons they failed to address with Jay.

#1:  Don't fire the OC if he's making progress

Hindsight is always 20/20, but even back in the early days of the Cutler run it was apparent the Bears were a bit too trigger happy when firing their offensive coordinators. Ron Turner got dumped after one year when Cutler threw 26 interceptions in 2009. This despite him finishing strong with eight touchdowns and one interception in the final two games. It was even worse two years later. Cutler was playing at an MVP rate under Mike Martz before unfortunately breaking his thumb in 2011. The Bears offense floundered without him. Martz rather unfairly bore the brunt of the blame for that and was fired, replaced by the totally unqualified Mike Tice. Cutler regressed as a result when he returned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGijfA8KGHQ The Bears of 2018 and beyond won't have this problem. This is where hiring Matt Nagy as head coach is so valuable. He's essentially the head coach and the offensive coordinator since he'll be calling plays. So the only way for Trubisky to lose his original play caller is if Nagy himself gets fired, which won't happen for at least two years.

#2:  Go hard at wide receiver early and often

The Bears were hobbled a bit in their ability to secure receiving talent in 2009 and 2010 due to the price they paid in the Cutler trade. That said, there were still opportunities to land quality targets that they missed. They could've had Miles Austin or Terrell Owens that first year as free agents. The next year veteran Nate Burleson could've helped. Then in 2011, they gave up not one but two chances to get either Randall Cobb or Torrey Smith. Thus Cutler was stuck with names like Devin Hester, Roy Williams, Devin Aromashadu, Johnny Knox and Earl Bennett as his primary targets. Decent in some ways but hardly a star-studded crew. Not until 2012 when Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery arrived did the Bears finally figure it out but by then things were already going downhill. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Johnny-Knox-Chargers.mp4"][/video] Just this one offseason the Bears have added the likes of Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, Javon Wims, Bennie Fowler and Marlon Brown to the mix. Lots of money and valuable draft picks were spent to give them a reasonable chance of putting quality options around Trubisky. This time it didn't take until season four to get serious.

#3:  High investment in the offensive line is a must

The Bears ran into the same problems on the offensive line they did at receiver. They made an initial investment when Cutler arrived and then wait a long time before trying again. Then when they did it was a total disaster as Gabe Carimi proved. Cutler survived despite the poor protection but it was clear his full potential was being held back. Not until 2013 did things start to get fixed and by then the stability of the Lovie Smith era was gone. Marc Trestman was in charge and everybody knows how that went. Could Smith have survived had he done a better job of keeping his quarterback off his back and safer from harm? It's a fair question since that was the primary motivation for his dismissal. By contrast, the Bears under Pace have been proactive on the offensive line from the jump. In 2016 they drafted Cody Whitehair in the second round, signed Pro Bowler Josh Sitton and tackle Bobby Massie. Not to mention signing underrated guard Eric Kush. Then this year they struck again by grabbing James Daniels in the second round.