Imrem: Fat chance 2015 will be Cutler's breakout season

The Bears reported for training camp Wednesday with a new general manager in Ryan Pace, a new head coach in John Fox and a new quarterback in Jay Cutler.

Well, no, Cutler is the same old Cutler calling signals even though he once again is expected to be new and improved.

“I just got a haircut and I had a lot of gray hair, so it kind of reminded me that I'm getting up there,” the 32-year-old Cutler said.

If it seems to Cutler that he's been with the Bears for an eternity, it must seem like seven eternities for Bears' fans.

The hope for the seventh straight season is that this is the year all of Chicago has been waiting.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, 2015 will be the year that Jay Cutler becomes everything he was supposed to be when the Bears acquired him from the Broncos in 2009.

In other words, this will be the year that Cutler leads the NFL in passer rating, is voted league Most Valuable Player, becomes a leader, becomes a winner, becomes a champion.

Or maybe not.

There's always a chance that this also will be my year to finally grow 10 inches taller, add 20 pounds of muscle and look 30 years younger.

Instead, there's a better chance that I'll keep shrinking, all the extra weight will be stomach flab, my face will be more wrinkled than ever and Jay Cutler will remain just another flawed quarterback.

How many years has it been that analysts have said that Cutler is out of excuses and this will be a make-or-break season for him?

At various times in the past the Bears gave Cutler a proven offensive coordinator in Mike Martz, an offensive-minded head coach in Marc Trestman, a friendly quarterbacks coach in Jeremy Bates …

Yet Cutler still hasn't grown any taller in the pocket than I have in my sneakers.

But a new training camp's first workouts will be conducted today and hopes will be high internally if not externally.

Cutler mentioned the new weapons he has this time around, like rookie wide receiver Kevin White and veteran slot receiver Eddie Royal.

“We've got some guys who can make some plays in some different spots for us,” Cutler said.

The newbies are supposed to help Cutler reach his potential, just as Brandon Marshall was supposed to when he was reunited with his old friend and former quarterback.

Uh, no, that didn't work either and Marshall is gone along with Martz, Trestman, Bates and so many others who passed through Halas Hall.

Meanwhile, Cutler not only remains, he has a salary that only elite quarterbacks and oil sheikhs have.

But this is another year in which Cutler surely will performs like a quarterback that makes all the right plays at all the right times, correct?

Fox, surely hoping to unlock the treasure that is Jay Cutler, talked around the issue as deftly during his camp-opening media briefing as he had during the offseason.

There were clichés like “quarterbacks and head coaches get more blame” than anyone else, and the NFL “is a production-based business.”

Fox' most revealing assessment of his dealings so far with Cutler was, “He's a very giving person, in my opinion.”

Presumably, Fox meant off the field and not Cutler's tendency to hand out interceptions on the field.

“Every year,” Cutler said, “you have to be trying to improve your game.”

OK, so maybe this is the year that Jay Cutler grows into an elite quarterback and I grow 30 years younger.

Or probably not.

mimrem@dailyherald.com