Rozner: Bears' Cutler doing what he does best

If not for his $100 million bank account and the fact that he's, well, Jay Cutler, you could almost feel sorry for Cutler at this point.

He could cure cancer and not get a pass in Chicago right now for anything he does. While the piling on is borderline laughable, the truth is far from funny.

Cutler is awful, he's regressing and he appeared Monday night to be a man who'd rather be anywhere other than where he was.

That's not the ideal posture for a man who is supposed to be the physical, intellectual and inspirational leader of your football team.

Cutler is an empty suit in a building filled with empty suits, and the temptation is to blame those possessing the power to hold him accountable for the failure to hold Cutler accountable.

That's easy to say. It is impossible to do.

Aaron Kromer told the truth. The way he did it was a fireable offense, and he almost certainly will be fired.

But the reason why it happened is more important. No one with the Bears holds Cutler accountable for his lack of football study, lack of play recognition, lack of progress and lack of leadership.

Kromer was beyond frustrated and it caused him to make a serious mistake. Credit him for coming clean as the source of a story criticizing Cutler, but he only made the problem worse by addressing the offense, and now will need help resuscitating his career.

So the list grows longer with the coaches Cutler leaves in his wake as the career that should have been continues to be the career that will never be.

Coach after coach gets fired, coach after coach wonders how a guy this talented can be this destructive.

So why doesn't Marc Trestman hold Cutler accountable? Why doesn't Phil Emery? Brandon Marshall? George McCaskey? Martellus Bennett?

Many before them have tried and the result is always the same. Josh McDaniels merely asked the question of whether the Broncos could do better at the position, and Cutler threw a fit any 3-year-old would find unbecoming.

Rather than rise to the challenge and say, "I'll prove you wrong," Cutler forced his way out of town. The Bears were the beneficiaries of this temper tantrum, and six years after his arrival in Chicago Cutler is no better on the field and only marginally better off.

His lack of urgency, interest and performance Monday night gave all the indications of a man less than interested in saving the job of an offensive coordinator who had just ripped him publicly.

So add it all up and you understand why coaches don't hold him accountable. He has a history of shutting it down, getting coaches fired or merely finding a new location if anyone looks at him the wrong way.

Backup quarterbacks are chosen strictly by the way they cozy up to Cutler and the lack of threat they pose to his job security.

Offensive weapons try to stay as close as they can to him, knowing there will be more targets the more they praise the QB.

Offensive linemen are careful never to say the wrong thing, knowing their job security is directly related to whether Cutler approves.

Character, leadership, inspiration and body language. Tell me again why these things don't matter in sports? Cutler is all the proof you'll ever need that they matter very much.

But this is way beyond leaders and followers, and what happens when followers have no leaders. This is about an organization crumbling at its foundation and it's too late to salvage any part of this.

Once everyone goes their separate ways, they'll wonder if they could have done anything different with the quarterback, if their coddling approach contributed to their downfall.

The suggestion here is don't beat yourself up. It has been the same everywhere he has ever been and Cutler's most consistent attribute is getting everyone fired.

Ultimately, it will be the same here, a trail of broken careers and fractured relationships, another staff brought down by the man with the golden gun.

Nothing new about any of it.

Still, Cutler is not the Antichrist. He doesn't beat women and children. He is not the NFL's worst nightmare.

He's just a very expensive problem for an organization that figured it out too late.

Take heart, it won't be the last time someone falls for it.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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