I was hoping it would take them longer to come to an agreement so I could lobby on Bears radio for a contract bigger than Rodgers. IMO the best thing about this is the size of the contract, it’ll make it more difficult for them to upgrade their defense. The Bears have a lot of cap room (before this contract I believe about 40 some million) and a lot of free agents this off season. And Peppers is signed but his cap number for 2014 is about $18M.
I think Cutler has a fatal flaw but he has a strong arm and their receiver corp, Forte, and their newly rebuilt OL are pretty impressive: The Bears finished second in the league in scoring so Trestman definitely revived the Bears offense. And it was effective with the second string QB (so they perhaps could’ve saved some money and cap room with a cheaper QB). But their D finished tied for second worst in the league in scoring. They've basically switched from Lovie's teams: Lovie never found the right OC and let's hope Trestman does as well regarding a DC (BTW I'm hoping they keep their current DC).
Cutler did post the best passer rating of his career in his 11 games this season at 89.2. But as already mentioned, his problem is INTs. Of course no one, not even the craziest Bears fan, would argue Cutler is better than Rodgers but for comparison purposes here are some stats. Rodgers began starting in 2008 and his rating that season was 93.8. That’s his lowest rating as a starter and of course it’s higher than Cutler’s career high.
Over the past five seasons, using nfl.com’s stats, Cutler has played in 67 regular season games and Rodgers has played in 71. Cutler has thrown 101 TDs and 75 INTs over that period so he’s averaged 1.51 TDs/game and 1.12 INTS/game.
Rodgers has thrown 159 TDs and 38 INTs over that period so he’s averaged 2.24 TDs/game and 0.53 INTS/game. Cutler's TDs/game was up slightly this year under Trestman but his INTs/game were right on his average.
What’s the difference in their compensation?