Jay Cutler’s Bears legacy is complicated. On one hand, he leads the franchise in many career passing categories, including yards, touchdowns, completions and attempts. On the other hand, he has thrown the second most interceptions of any Bears quarterback, missed portions of many seasons due to injury and led the team to only one playoff berth. Though Cutler’s totals with the Bears make him one of the best quarterbacks to ever play for the team, he will probably be rememberd as a fairly average quarterback that sometimes managed to display flashes of brilliance. When healthy, he usually found himself in the top half of the league in passing categories — though he led the league in a passing category only twice, for number of interceptions.
Seasons by season
Cutler’s best statistical seasons with the team were 2010, 2014 and 2015. In 2010, he led the Bears to an 11-5 regular season record (10-5 in games that he played), a playoff berth, and a loss in the NFC championship game to the rival Green Bay Packers. But in 2014 and 2015, his statistics didn’t help much, as the team finished a combined 11-21 in those seasons.
Season passing statistics, 2009-16 With rank out of NFL quarterbacks 2009 Games played: 16
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 7-9 NFL RANK: Yards 3666 13th TDs 27 8th INTs 26 1st 2010 Games played: 15
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 10-5 NFL RANK: Yards 3274 17th TDs 23 13th INTs 16 8th 2011 Games played: 10
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 7-3 NFL RANK: Yards 2319 25th TDs 13 24th INTs 7 31rd 2012 Games played: 15
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 10-5 NFL RANK: Yards 3033 24th TDs 19 22nd INTs 14 12th 2013 Games played: 11
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 5-6 NFL RANK: Yards 2621 23rd TDs 19 18th INTs 12 13th 2014 Games played: 15
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 5-10 NFL RANK: Yards 3812 13th TDs 28 10th INTs 18 1st 2015 Games played: 15
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 6-9 NFL RANK: Yards 3659 19th TDs 21 17th INTs 11 15th 2016 Games played: 5
| Bears record in Cutler’s games: 1-4 NFL RANK: Yards 1059 36th TDs 4 38th INTs 5 32nd
Spotty injury record
Cutler has not played a complete season for the Bears since his first season with the team in 2009, and he missed five or more games in three seasons. He also was forced to leave several games with an injury, most notably the 2010 NFC Championship game against the Packers.
Cutler’s status for each game Started game Started game, but did not finish because of injury Did not play Season 20’09 20’10 20’11 20’12 20’13 20’14 20’15 20’16 Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Game 5 Game 6 Game 7 Game 8 Game 9 Game 10 Game 11 Game 12 Game 13 Game 14 Game 15 Game 16 Div. playoff NFC Champ.
Cutler vs. other Bears QBs
Despite everything, Jay Cutler owns many of the career statistics for Bears quarterbacks. The only bears QB that comes close is Sid Luckman, who was one of the greatest passers in football in the 1940s. The league was dramatically different back then, but Luckman led the Bears to four NFL championships.
Bears career passing leaders Top-5 in selected categories Passing yards Rank Quarterback Years Passing Yards 1 Jay Cutler 2009-16 23,443 2 Sid Luckman 1939-50 14,686 3 Jim Harbaugh 1987-93 11,567 4 Jim McMahon 1982-88 11,203 5 Erik Kramer 1994-98 10,582 Pass attempts Rank Quarterback Years Pass attempts 1 Jay Cutler 2009-16 3,271 2 Jim Harbaugh 1987-93 1,759 3 Sid Luckman 1939-50 1,744 4 Erik Kramer 1994-98 1,557 5 Jim McMahon 1982-88 1,513 Passing touchdowns Rank Quarterback Years Passing TDs 1 Jay Cutler 2009-16 154 2 Sid Luckman 1939-50 137 3 Billy Wade 1961-66 68 4 Jim McMahon 1982-88 67 5 Erik Kramer 1994-98 63 Interceptions Rank Quarterback Years Interceptions 1 Sid Luckman 1939-50 132 2 Jay Cutler 2009-16 109 3 Ed Brown 1954-61 88 4 George Blanda 1949-58 70 5 Bob Avellini 1975-84 69
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
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