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October 20, 2009
BY MIKE MULLIGAN Staff Reporter
The Jay Cutler era was lengthened by at least two more seasons Tuesday when the Bears reached a contract extension with the quarterback that will keep him in Chicago through 2013.
The deal ranks Cutler fifth among the NFL's highest-paid quarterbacks behind Eli and Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Phillip Rivers.
Cutler, who has achieved folk hero, pop idol and franchise savior status in just five games since forcing an offseason trade from Denver, will get all but $10 million of the nearly $30 million extension guaranteed in the form of bonus money.
It’s a win-win deal for both sides. Cutler, 26, is still under contract through 2011 on the six-year, $47.86 million rookie deal he signed with the Broncos. Now he gets an early payday, with the promise of being back on the open market as a 30 year-old with a chance for another huge deal. If things work out as the team hopes, it can pay Cutler more big bucks at that point.
The deal works well for the Bears because they effectively move up a $12 million roster bonus the player was scheduled to receive in 2011, while adding two more seasons at what projects to be a very competitive rate for a franchise quarterback given the amount of money the position has commanded in recent months.
With salary-cap space to burn, the Bears will give Cutler cash under this year’s cap and presumably reserve money in the next few years to build their team around a cornerstone player.
There has been an inevitability about an extension for Cutler since the day he arrived. The new deal is merely an affirmation of the commitment the Bears made to the quarterback when they packaged a pair of first-round picks with Kyle Orton and a swap of a third-round pick for a fifth-rounder (Johnny Knox) to get Cutler in the first place.
You don’t pay that sort of price for a player without having a long-term plan for his future. Cutler made a Pro Bowl in Denver last year and if he’s as good as the Bears believe he is, the final years of the deal might turn out to be a bargain. Cutler also will have a chance to maximize his value in a the NFL’s No. 2 television market. He has thus far turned down most media and endorsement opportunities and can no doubt supplement his income nicely if he decides to reverse that policy.
Cutler has already hired Jeff Jacobs, the former president of Harpo Enterprises, as his marketing representative. Jacobs is the man who helped put Oprah Winfrey on the map. The NFL’s leading pitch man according to Sports Illustrated is Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning, who made more than $13 million in endorsements last year. Cutler may eventually supplement his income to that standard.
Regardless, the deal he signed puts him in elite status among NFL signal callers. And that is saying something since the price for quarterbacks has risen dramatically in the NFL, even since Cutler was acquired on April 2. The N.Y. Giants set the bar with Eli Manning’s six-year, $97.5 million deal that included $35 million in guaranteed money. The one-year salary for a quarterback under the franchise tag is $14.65 million with Matt Cassel signing a tender offer at that price with New England before being traded to Kansas City. Cassel wound up signing a six-year, $63 million deal with the Chiefs that included $28 million in guaranteed money.
Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 overall selection in the April draft was given a six-year, $72 million deal over six years, including a record $41.7 million in guaranteed money by the Detroit Lions. It was the Broncos’ flirtation with trading for Cassel and moving Cutler, reportedly to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, that fueled the trade demand. The Bears won a bidding war for his services because Kyle Orton was deemed the best quarterback the Broncos could get in return by Denver coach Josh McDaniels.
Orton has helped lead Denver to a 6-0 record and will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. The Bears have never expressed a single regret about the Cutler trade and effectively asserted their belief in Cutler by locking him into their long-term future.
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