WWJD - We finally have a quarterback...I hope

I was wildly pumped about the Jay Cutler trade from the Denver Broncos to the Chicago Bears for a couple reasons.

First and most obviously, I've never seen a real quarterback put on a Bears jersey in my lifetime. I hardly remember Jim McMahon and to call him great or even beyond solid may be an overstatement of the facts.

Second, I've really tuned out this team since the 2006 Super Bowl. First of all, I'm a bigger baseball fan than a football fan and second, the Chicago White Sox won a championship in 2005.

Pardon me for being spoiled.

But I digress.

Forget about Cutler for a minute if you are a Bears fan and just let it sink in that GM Jerry Angelo actually grew a pair. Whether this works out or not is beside the point. I'm just happy the team rolled the dice for once.

If this trade works out positively, Angelo bought himself a ton of time as the current general manager. If this trade fails, he would/should be gone at the end of the season.

The key point is that Cutler makes this team better. How much better? I have no idea. They still don't have any receivers and I'm not entirely sold on the offensive line. An sufficient backup for running back Matt Forte would also help.

But anyone with gripes about the trade (judging by anybody outside the media there aren't many) should realize three things:

1) Quarterback is the most important position on the field in this NFL.
2) Kyle Orton is not a good quarterback.
3) Angelo can't draft anything but defense.

So there you have it, three bullet points to shoot down any criticism of this trade.

Yes, we gave up 1st round picks for the next two years but this year was a late-middle first round choice which wouldn't have netted anything franchise changing and if the team is good next year it won't matter that we lose another pick because it will be later in the draft.

And did you really trust that this team could develop a quarterback anyway?

Did I mention we signed future Hall-of-Famer Orlando Pace to block for Cutler?

Okay, I'll stop drinking the Kool-Aid for a second and objectively look at this thing.

Is Cutler a Pro Bowl talent? Yes. Has he reached his ultimate potential? No.

But does he have similar characteristics as a certain Sexy Rexy? Yes.

Both have rocket arms and both occasionally throw the ball to the other team.

Take Cutler's best season vs. Rex Grossman's best season.

Cutler had 25 TDs and over 4,500 yards passing while Grossman had over 3,000 yards passing and 23 TDs.

Now here's the key: Cutler was picked off 18 times while the Rex Cannon was picked off 20 times.

Neither of those ratios are very good and Cutler won't have the honeymoon phase last long if he's turning the ball over that much.

The good news? Cutler was throwing the ball a heck of a lot more than Grossman was in his best season because the Broncos didn't have a running game.

The bad news? I'm not sure Cutler has anyone to throw the ball to.