Chicago Bears Welcome Jay Cutler

Newly signed Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was introduced to the Chicago media today. Alongside Bears GM Jerry Angelo and head coach Lovie Smith, it was the obligatory intro presser, but it seemed to be met with a greater sense of excitement and anticipation than any other I’ve seen this offseason.

And even though Jay says he’s not a savior for the franchise (and I agree with him), I think a lot of Bears fans are looking to him as exactly that. Yesterday, I referred to him as the team’s first franchise quarterback since Jim McMahon, so I was probably laying that on him as well. But that wouldn’t be fair:

“I don’t see myself as that (savior) at all. In this league I’ve learned over the past three years it takes offense, defense, special teams and it takes great coaching. If you don’t have all four of those, you’re not going to go very far. Expectations are high everywhere in this league. Obviously in this town they’re going to be a little bit higher because of the fans and how much they cherish the Bears. But it’s going to take everyone in the locker room and everyone upstairs to get it done.”

The Bears have to be thrilled with the tremendous upgrade at the most important position on their team. And even though Orlando Pace isn’t a long term solution, it will be an improvement to have him protecting Jay’s blind side. Nevertheless, it will, indeed, take a team effort to get the Bears back to playing championship football. All things considered, it’s easy to get excited about Chicago Bears football right now. And in my opinion, they are the team to beat in the NFC North. Detroit should show signs of improvement (how could they get any worse?), but the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers could be stagnating or stepping backwards in 2009.

Source: ChicagoBears.com, Photo: Newscom