Why Jay Cutler Is a Lot Like Jim McMahon

With Jay Cutler returning from a concussion and a game where he was sacked nine times, should we expect the QB to play any differently?

"I can't change the way I play," he said.

Cutler's willingness to take the hits reminds me of another Bears quarterback who liked to throw his body all over the field. Jim McMahon is still one of Chicago's most beloved players because he lead the Bears to a Super Bowl championship while also sacrificing his body for the win. However, looking at McMahon's career, fans have to wonder how many more rings they could have won if McMahon had played more conservatively.

McMahon didn't have a single season where he played in every game. Even in the Super Bowl season, he played in 11 of the games. The next season, with the dominant Bears team looking to repeat, McMahon started six games. Without their fearless leader and Doug Flutie in at quarterback, the Bears were bounced from the playoffs by the Redskins.

Cutler doesn't throw himself into bunches of defensive linemen, as McMahon was known to do, but he does take an awful lot of sacks.  He doesn't want to change the way he plays, but hopefully, he'll look at history and play his game smarter than McMahon.

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