Will Jay Cutler Regress without Adam Gase?
By John Vassar
The minute Adam Gase signed to be head coach of the Miami Dolphins flares of concern about Jay Cutler filled social media. Should there be concern? Was Gase’s influence overstated? Are we seeing the natural maturation of Jay Cutler being his own man?
I believe the normal reaction should be of concern. This will be the Cutler’s sixth offensive coordinator in eight seasons with the Bears. It is well-documented that a revolving door of head coaches and coordinators only hinders a QB from developing. Even Bruce Arians was quoted regarding Cutler that any QB that has had five to six coordinators is in a tough situation.
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But we might be overreaching here this time. Fox has stated nothing changes with the system. It’s possible that Cutler’s friend and QB coach, Dowell Loggains, gets the job. Or does Fox and Ryan Pace bring in Ken Whisenhut to come aboard and just run what is in place? Regardless, Adam Gase gave some insight on Cutler’s development.
“[Cutler] has a good idea of how he wants to play the game, and the thing that you have to understand is that he’s the one that’s [improved his play],” Gase said when he was asked whether Cutler has a foundation to succeed without him.
“The turnovers have been cut down because of the things that he’s worked on and the way that he’s approached the game. It’s been a low number this year because he’s allowed himself to get better within practice and took it upon himself that we’re protecting the ball.”
What we can take from Gase comments is that what we witnessed this season in Cutler’s play was more to do with Cutler than Gase. To further that point, when you push the stats away and look at how Jay played you can see Gase’s point. Cutler was in total command of the offense regardless of the offensive line, wide receivers or any adversity thrown their way.
So is there reason to be concerned? I would say no. I believe what we saw was Cutler coming into his own with a head coach that knows how to build a team. Lovie Smith and Marc Trestman as head coaches were not on the same level as Fox and that by itself has set the tone for Cutler to mature and become the leader he always was. While it’s foolhardy to predict what will happen in 2016, I suspect Jay Cutler will grow and lead the Bears into a winning season.