The Bears have had a quiet, depressing offseason. After promising big changes to the team -- huge holes at quarterback, wide receiver, and basically every other position on the field all need plugging -- GM Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith have made what can at best be called minor tweaks. In the meantime, Terrell Owens was signed by the Bills for a one-year contract, T.J. Houshmandzadeh went to the Seahawks, and the Bears barely sniffed either. Oh, and there's still no quarterback.
It's that last issue the Bears now have their best chance to address. Young Broncos QB Jay Cutler is still peeved at his team for dangling him in trade negotiations. He wants to be traded. It appears he will be traded. Sports Illustrated reporter and (noted fan of overpriced coffee) Peter King is practically sounding the trade bell already:
But in the end, Denver will have to strongly consider trading Cutler. [...] Parting with Cutler would be forcing the Broncos to start over at the game's most important position when they thought they had the position filled for the next decade. But Cutler, who is one of the best quarterback prospects to enter the NFL in years, can be moody, and if he never buys what McDaniels is selling, it could drag the team down.
Here's the Bears' shot. Jay Cutler is still a developing prospect, and he's already better than Kyle Orton. He is moody, and he is apparently a bit of a troublemaker -- who gets this angry over a trade rumor, really? -- but the simple truth is that a trade for Cutler would immediately improve their team both in the short term and for the franchise's forseeable future. Cutler is a legitimate pro quarterback. That's something the Bears haven't had in decades. And the Broncos are in a place where, despite their best efforts, they apparently have no other options.
That raises the question of what the Bears would have to give up for Cutler. Do they even have any assets to trade? Would a draft pick work? That's the next step. It's a next step the Bears desperately need to investigate; opportunites like this don't come around often, and the timing couldn't be better.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger who isn't quite sure the Bears will ever trade for anybody, let alone Jay Cutler. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, FanHouse, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
