Bear sense not so common in these matters

Just imagine the summit meeting Monday morning at Halas Hall.

"Did you hear the news about Jay Cutler?"

"Yeah, darn it, he asked the Broncos to trade him."

"So what are we going to do to keep fans from wanting us to get him?"

"We could just ignore the whole thing and hope it goes away."

"But the media will clamor for us to leap into the bidding."

"Then we'll have to resort to a misdirection play."

"No, you don't mean -"

"Sure. We'll spread rumors that Cutler's hanging out with Madonna and A-Rod's cousin."

Seriously, folks, the question isn't whether the Bears could acquire Cutler if he were available. It's whether they would even try.

The Bears don't think in terms of big player moves. They think baby step here, seat licensing there, another baby step here, more luxury boxes there -

Bear sense: Cutler is emotionally fragile, a whiner and below .500 as a starting NFL quarterback.

Common sense: Cutler has a big arm, moves reasonably well and at 25 years of age made the Pro Bowl in his third NFL season last year.

Bear sense: It's risky to mortgage the franchise for a big baby who wants to leave Denver just because his bosses dared consider replacing him.

Common sense: John Elway and Eli Manning were spoiled brats who won Super Bowls for other teams after refusing to go to the first teams that could have drafted them.

Bear sense: It would take too much in draft choices and players to acquire Cutler.

Common sense: Surrender whatever it would take to land a player many believe to be a franchise quarterback.

Bear sense: The Lions would be the leaders for Cutler because they have 2009's first overall draft pick to offer in a package.

Common sense: Concoct a three-team trade, or four-team trade, or 32-team trade if that's what it takes to get this guy out of Denver.

Bear sense: Paying too much to acquire Cutler would leave little talent around him.

Common sense: The Bears would have to suffer for a while but could be good for a decade after rebuilding around Cutler.

Bear sense: The last line of defense for not making a bold move on offense would be to express confidence in Kyle Orton.

Common sense: The first line of offense would be to see an opportunity to acquire a better quarterback and trying everything to improve on Orton instead of trying to improve Orton.

Listen, I'm being a little dramatic here to make a point.

Jay Cutler is a quality quarterback. He might be traded sooner than later. The Bears shouldn't hesitate to make an aggressive play for him.

The operative word here is quarterback. This whole scenario is no big deal other than it's the most important position in sports.

If a team, any team, even the Bears, can upgrade big time at quarterback it would be insane to look for excuses not to.

What a thrill it would be to find out that this discussion took place Monday afternoon at Halas Hall.

"Did you hear that Jay Cutler might be available?"

"Yeah, let's go get him and not take no for answer."

No chance of that happening, is there?

mimrem@dailyherald.com