Martz on Cutler: 'I thoroughly enjoy his company'
BOURBONNAIS - Maybe it'll be different the first time Jay Cutler gets sacked five times in a game or throws 3 interceptions, but for now there is no evidence of the feared ego clash between the Bears' quarterback and new offensive coordinator Mike Martz.
So far, it sounds like a dream matchup, whether it's Cutler or Martz discussing the relationship. After Wednesday morning's mini-practice, Martz was asked if he had to work hard at developing a relationship with the talented and enigmatic quarterback.
He laughed.
"Oh gosh no," Martz said. "No, no, no. If you knew really, and I don't mean any disrespect, but if you knew how silly that was and how easy things are between he and I. I thoroughly enjoy his company, just enjoy being around him outside the football part of it, too. He's got a great sense of humor by the way. He's a little screwed up in his sense of humor like I am, so we kind of fit pretty good I think."
Martz's sense of humor was on display recently at the cafeteria around lunchtime. A young cornerback walked in wearing huge earphones, rapping along with a tune.
"Whatta ya got there?" Martz asked. "Some John Denver?"
"Mike's fun," Cutler said. "It's been fun getting to know him and being around him. He's 24/7 football. There's no getting around that. But every once in a while, he has a few jokes, he has a few stories. It hasn't been a bad thing meeting with him a lot."
On the field, it's been a sometimes-slow process of installing the new offense, and Martz remains a stickler for details and a perfectionist, but it's nothing Cutler didn't expect.
"You kind of know what you're going to get out of Mike," Cutler said. "He doesn't hold any punches. Everything he does is for a reason. He puts a lot of pressure offensively on you to go out there and learn the offense, and not only learn it, but do it the right way and know all the little details. That's how he has always done it."
On the field, it's been obvious that the offensive line has struggled to hold its own against the defensive line, but Martz says that's also to be expected during the installation phase of any new offense.
Another change for Cutler is that in Martz's scheme, the quarterback is sometimes asked to throw the ball to a spot on the field rather than to a receiver. Cutler has made a smooth transition, according to the coach.
"What we do really kind of fits him," Martz said. "He has that Kurt Warner awareness, if you will. He has such a keen sense of where everybody's at. He sees everything, and he can diagnose it without even thinking about it, which allows him to excel with what we do."
As soon as Cutler and the offensive players get familiar with an aspect of the offense, Martz throws more at them.
"We keep trying to challenge him with a lot of new things, just try to keep pressing the envelope," Martz said. "Then, when we get into the season, we'll come back and zero in each week. We're trying to get as many different concepts in with Jay as we possibly can. He's handled everything just remarkably well. He has always tried to do everything just the way we've asked him to do it, and then when things do break down, the really great ones have a sense of just finding a guy. He can do that. I think he's been pretty remarkable so far. He's everything that I had hoped that he would be, absolutely."
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<li><a href="/story/?id=398680">Cutler explains his frustration<span class="date"> [8/5/10]</span></a></li>
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