Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said recently that he couldn’t think of any reason why he wouldn’t return to the team for the 2016 season and General Manager Ryan Pace said pretty much the same thing during a Monday press conference.
Cutler is coming off of his best season as a member of the Bears and perhaps the best season of his career after an offseason that featured many calls for the team to move on without the quarterback. Pace pointed out Cutler’s drop in turnovers and the fact that he played well despite several injuries to skill position players while expressing the team’s confidence in moving forward with Cutler under center.
“I think Jay knows that we have extreme confidence in him,” Pace said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “We’re going to continue to build the offense around him; I think he knows that. I think he also knows that, ‘Hey, we’re always going to draft best player available, too, and acquire as much talent as we can.’ We’ve been very open and honest with all our players.”
If there’s a fly in the ointment in Chicago, it would be the potential loss of offensive coordinator Adam Gase to a head coaching job. Cutler called Gase’s system the best he’s ever played in on Monday and the team could still have continuity by promoting Dowell Loggains from quarterbacks coach if Gase does leave, which would probably be a sound way to go if the team wants more of the same from Cutler in 2016.