For those of you in your fantasy league playoffs, congrats on making it this far and good luck in the finals.  For those of you, especially in keeper and dynasty leagues, who didn’t make it or were eliminated, now’s as good a time as any to start looking to the future.  It’s a good idea to compile information and form opinions based on what is happened this season while it’s still fresh in our minds.  Too often the news becomes distorted over the off season as slow news cycles cause small tidbits of information, good or bad, to get overblown.

Jay Cutler is the 29 year old quarterback for the Chicago Bears.  He’s 6-3 weighs 220 lbs and ran a 4.77 forty at the NFL Combine.  Cutler was born in Georgia but raised in – perfect for my last pre Christmas column – Santa Claus, Indiana.  He went to high school in Indiana where he started for his final three years.  Cutler’s teams dominated during his time at the helm, including a 90-0 shellacking in one game.  He also was the team’s starting safety and reportedly was pretty good at that position too.  Cutler was an all around great athlete, making All-State in basketball and honorable mention in baseball.  He went to Vanderbilt University where he started all four years.  Although the team wasn’t very good going 11-35 in that time, Cutler never missed a game due to injury and performed well.  He made the All-SEC team as a freshman and won the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, a first for the school.   Here are his college stats:

In Cutler’s case just throwing the ball more won’t really help because other than Marshall and Matt Forte the Bears don’t have anyone else who has made significant contributions to the passing game.  Forte being second on the team in receiving with just 3 catches and 25 yards per game is not the recipe for fantasy QB success.  Rookie Alshon Jeffery has shown promise and Johnny Knox, who hasn’t played this year, was decent enough last season but otherwise their stable of receivers is wafer thin.  Kellen Davis will never be mistaken for a weapon in the passing game.

I don’t believe Jay Cutler will be a viable starting quarterback for fantasy in 2013 but that will depend on whether the Bears add any help at wide receiver or tight end.  If Marshall, Knox and Jeffery are the top three WR and Davis returns as the primary TE I wouldn’t count on Cutler as anything more than a time share QB next year.  Even then there will likely be more productive options in that role for your team.  Most likely the Bears will also be looking to improve their offensive line which would also help Cutler.  But the Bears are aging no defense and they can only improve so many areas in one draft and one free agency period.  But if the Bears add two of the following: a quality pass catching tight end; a quality number two receiver; a significant upgrade on the offensive line; then Cutler’s fortunes look much better.  If the Bears do two of those things then I see Cutler as an excellent buy low candidate, although a bit of a risk-reward scenario.

Cutler is only 29 years old so he should have several quality seasons left in him.  He’s got the physical ability and while he’s no Peyton Manning or Tom Brady he thinks the game well enough that he’s been successful even while under pressure when he’s had receiving options.  Right now teams can double Marshall and put everyone else tight to the box and be able to cover all the other receivers and keep Forte in check where the passing game is concerned.  Of course it remains to be seen whether the Bears re-sign him after 2013 the probability of that goes up significantly if he has more weapons next year as I’m confident he would take advantage of them.  If he again ends up as a middle of the pack NFL quarterback then I don’t see the Bears or any other team willing to pay him top dollar to be a starting QB.  Cutler doesn’t seem to have the qualities you look for in a backup so the worst case could be he ends up out of football altogether.

Re-Draft Playoff Update:  I made the playoffs in only one of my two one-year leagues, and won last week so I’m in the finals.  I have some nice match ups and some decisions to make:

Matt Schaub or Colin Kaepernick at QB (I had Mike Vick and Jay Cutler but got rid of them both when the concussions hit).

Matt Forte against Arizona is nice, but do I play my stud Marshawn Lynch vs. San Fran(probably) or go with Mikel Leshoure and his nice match up vs. Atlanta?  I’m a firm believer of NOT simply going with your top guys, but Lynch put up 100 yards in Frisco earlier, and he’s averaging just over 100 per game with 6 TD’s at home.  Leshoure has been scoring TD’s but his yardage is not that impressive and the chance he could lose the majority of carries to Joique Bell mid-game is too high I think.

Wes Welker and Aaron Hernandez vs Jacksonville is really nice and Hakeem Nicks vs Baltimore is also pretty good.  I think it’s time to bench Denarius Moore vs Carolina and go with TY Hilton and his great match up against KC.  I also dropped Malcom Floyd when he went on IR and just picked up

Danario Alexander so maybe he’s the play against the Jets weak pass defense?

I had the Giants D most of the season but recently dropped them and played the match ups with some success.  This week I’m going with San Diego, although surprisingly the match up got worse when they decided to bench Mark Sanchez.  Still have to like they’ll be facing a rookie QB with little in the way of receiving help.

I have Matt Bryant as my kicker so no need to worry about switching him for anyone.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed