Chicago Bears Fantasy Focus Part 1: Jay Cutler
With training camp set to open this week, it means that Fantasy Football is right around the corner. Most seasons, the Chicago Bears were a Fantasy Football afterthought aside from maybe the Defense and Special Teams. That will not be the case in 2009. In this series, we’ll take a look at the Bears you should target for your fantasy football squad.
Jay Cutler
If you’ve just been rescued from a tropical island and lost your companion volleyball Wilson in the process, here’s a scoop for you – the Bears got Jay Cutler this offseason. Cutler adds a legitimate threat at the QB position in Chicago for the first time since fantasy football moved from a bunch of football geeks tracking stats on legal pads and the Monday sports page.
Overall Rank: 87
Position Rank: 12
2008 Stats: 4526 yards, 25 TD’s, 18 INT’s
Projected 2009 Stats: 3800 yards/24 TD’s/16 INT’s
Upside: Cutler clicks with deep threat Devin Hester and the unproven wide receivers step up. A strong tight end group and all-purpose running back Matt Forte provide underneath yardage and TD’s.
Downside: Teams double team Hester and the multitude of questions surrounding the wide receiver position prove valid. The Bears run the ball effectively and limit Cutler’s opportunities. (As a Bears fan, I wouldn’t complain about that, but it could hurt your fantasy squad!)
My take: OK Bears fans, here’s where you get to show off your offseason research. Don’t be a homer. As excited as you are to have Cutler and as much as he’ll help the Bears, that may or may not translate well to your fantasy league. The Bears are admittedly unproven at the wide receiver position and still contend to be a running team, so don’t jump the gun on JC. I rank him in the middle tier of QB’s based on his questionable and unproven weapons. According to a number of fantasy mock drafts , the earliest he’s gone in mid-fifth round, so if you really feel you can’t put your team together without him, that should give you a good idea of where you need to reach for him.
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