Jay Cutler at Chicago Bears training camp - Online Photo

The time is finally upon us. Training camps are underway, and the speculation, machismo, and rhetoric of the NFL media starts to ramp up.  I enter the season with a new quarterback at the helm of my team, beatable division rivals, a promising young tailback, and…something…to look forward to on defense, I guess.

It’s a foreign sensation as a Bears fan to go into a season excited about the quality of the offense while deciding to ignore the problems on defense.  Typically it’s much more the other way around. But I’ve managed to convert nicely.  In fact I spent an entire picturesque Saturday watching Jay Cutler highlights from 2008. My jaw moved to the ‘dropped’ position upon watching this highlight early in the binge.

I vaguely remembered the game. It was Week 2 and I didn’t see it, but I recalled the image of Jay Cutler with the slapstick fumble in the last minute of the game. I recall ridiculing him, as an open discussion regarding who was more despicable – Jay Cutler or Phil Rivers – had broken out between my lady and me (Cutler usually won). I didn’t remember Cutler getting up and throwing the game-clinching touchdown and 2-pt. conversion.  

The fumble will remind any Bears fan of You-Know-Who, but his poise afterwards sure won’t. I know Cutler throws picks, and bad ones sometimes, but I’m past it. I’ll take the guy who has a rocket arm and who doesn’t fumble two snaps a game. And who doesn’t throw picks for TD’s to D-Ends. Or post 0.0 passer ratings in crucial division home games late in the season.

Indeed the quarterback position has me pumped.  But then I am deflated like a guy wearing a purple Brett Favre jersey when I look at the defense, particularly when I get an eyeful of the secondary.  They’ve replaced Mike Freaking Brown with Josh Freaking Bullocks, and their underachieving cornerbacks are barely making it through camp.  

I like what Rod Marinelli brings to the table as a D-Line coach, but the players are as suspect as they were last year, when Chicago did a pretty decent impression of The Three Stooges trying to go through a door at the same time.  They blitzed more than any team in the league and rarely even got pressure.  As the Bears’ D-line improves, so do the Bears.  Nate Vasher and D.J. Moore will look like world-beaters if Tommie Harris (uh..), Mark Anderson, and Tank Johnson Israel Idonije can return to their Super Bowl season form.

Bears fans, let everyone else underestimate what Cutler will do with Matt Forte, Devin Hester, and Greg Olsen. Don’t worry. They’ll be fine.

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