Count Mike Holmgren as one who believes Bears quarterback Jay Cutler would do himself a service if he worked on his demeanor a bit.
Speaking to David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune, Holmgren said, “I’d go to work heavy on perception, how he is viewed, his body language, stuff like that. People will say, ‘Who cares?’ but people do care. It affects those people like teammates and coaches and a lot of other people in Chicago.”
It’s not the first time someone’s opined on Cutler’s shrug-and-smirk approach. But it is advice from a man who, over the past two decades, has been closely involved with quarterbacks like Brett Favre, Steve Young, and Matt Hasselbeck. Holmgren knows of what he speaks.
Which isn’t to say he thinks Cutler’s a bad player.
“So few of those kind of guys come around that I couldn’t believe [the Broncos] would let him go,” Holmgren said. "[Cutler] has to improve his decisions, but he has great talent. I had a quarterback who was a little reckless too [Brett Favre], but as a coach you can manage that.”
As for his own plans, the 61-year-old Holmgren told Haugh he wants back on a sideline in 2010.
“I had to see how I’d feel about not working and what I’ve learned about myself is, I miss it. I’m a football coach. It seems the league is cyclical and hiring young guys . . . but experience in the NFL still means a heck of a lot.”
Of course, the cycle isn’t just about hiring young, it’s about hiring relatively cheap. And veteran coaches with long and impressive resumes like Holmgren and former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan -- who’s also made it clear he wants back in -- will presumably want both a lot of money and a lot of control over personnel decisions. And that’s not a direction that’s currently in vogue in the NFL.