Imrem: Could be beginning of the end for Chicago Bears and Cutler
The Chicago Bears embarrassed themselves on "Monday Night Football" … the loss dropped their record to 0-2 … Soldier Field fans booed.
What it all adds up to is the beginning of the end for Jay Cutler in a Bears uniform.
Remember, this opinion is coming from someone who believed that Cutler would find a way to remain the Bears' quarterback into the 22nd century.
But it sure feels now like Cutler's stay in Chicago will end after this season.
It'll just be time.
I'm notifying you so you won't be as shocked over this divorce as you were over the Jolie-Pitt breakup.
Not even Cutler can survive the latest barrage of negativity, some of it unfairly aimed at his level of toughness after he left the Eagles game with a sprained right thumb.
Head coach John Fox isn't going to be fired over the Bears' ineptitude. General manager Ryan Pace won't be. That leaves the QB.
So who's the Bears' next quarterback?
Who knows?
Maybe it'll be whoever isn't the quarterback in Minnesota next year: Teddy Bridgewater or Sam Bradford. Maybe it'll be Jimmy Garoppolo if the Patriots decide to trade him to the highest bidder. Maybe it'll be the best from a weak QB class in the 2017 draft.
Regardless, Cutler is vulnerable because Fox and Pace inherited him; their guaranteed financial commitment to him fades after this season; age and injuries are factors.
It didn't help Cutler or the Bears that injured linebacker Pernell McPhee, in street clothes, was seen undressing him on the sideline after an interception.
Just more controversy concerning the controversial QB.
On the radio Tuesday morning, analysts skewered Cutler over the one quality most agree he has: toughness.
Who agrees? Well, about 90 minutes before Monday's kickoff a group of sports writers from here and Philadelphia discussed the teams' starting quarterbacks.
The consensus on Cutler was that the only certainty is that he's one tough football cookie.
Question Cutler's penchant for turnovers. his demeanor, his leadership, his decisions, his just about everything.
But not his toughness.
Yet it happened. At 6 a.m. Tuesday on ESPN radio, former NFL players Ryan Clark, Herman Edwards and show co-host Mike Golic assessed Cutler.
Ignoring Cutler's broken-body of work, they condemned him for exiting the game early and dredged up that he didn't finish the NFC championship game six years ago.
Injured Browns quarterback Josh McCown, a former Cutler backup, was praised for fighting to stay in Sunday's game.
Golic, Edwards and Clark said that a football player should have to be dragged off the football field.
How amusing. On one hand, Cutler is ripped for not going the distance. On the other hand, Fox is ripped for not taking him out sooner.
Cutler's image never completely shed similar criticism after the 2010 NFC title game, and he's unlikely to shed this latest barrage.
"I think he's shown toughness," Fox said Tuesday afternoon. "I don't think that's a question."
Shouldn't be, but just about everything concerning Cutler becomes a question.
The answer is that this sure looks like the beginning of the end for Jay Cutler in Chicago.
By the way, there will be no fond and festive farewell tour.
Just a celebration.
mimrem@dailyherald.com