The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears may be hated rivals, but that isn't stopping Aaron Rodgers from defending the much-maligned Jay Cutler. Though the two quarterbacks and their respective teams are in vastly different situations, Rodgers isn't standing by and watching his fellow quarterback draw unfair criticism.
Aaron Rodgers defends Jay Cutler against Bears OC remarks
The Packers and Bears have a heated rivalry, but that’s not stopping Aaron Rodgers from defending his fellow quarterback.
The controversy surrounding Cutler and offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer is still fresh on everyone's mind. After a deflating home loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 14, a frustrated Kromer told Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network that Cutler has "absolutely killed" the Bears with his poor decision-making on the field. The 31-year-old quarterback leads the NFL with 24 turnovers and has struggled with consistency all season.
Kromer has since apologized for his remarks, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgiven. Now, Rodgers is publicly sticking up for Cutler, per Michael Silver of NFL.com.
“I would have a major problem if somebody said something like that,” Rodgers said Tuesday. “I think anybody that plays the position, you can’t help but empathize with Jay for that situation. You talk all the time about being connected, being a unit, believing in each other. But if you have unnamed sources, people out there cutting you down, and then you find out it’s the person calling the plays -- that would be really hard to deal with, to look at him the same way.”
Rodgers has not had to deal with that kind of dysfunction in Green Bay. The Packers’ locker room features, as Rodgers says, “open lines of communication” between players and coaches to keep issues like what the Bears have from ever occurring. In Chicago, the situation is a lot less stable. The Bears have been in the midst of turmoil for most of the year, ranging from locker room fights to a lack of leadership.
The contrast between the two teams is only magnified on the field. Rodgers, who’s having an MVP-caliber season, has the Packers at 10-4 and in the hunt for the NFC North title. The Bears, however, are 5-9 and have missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year, and the fifth time in Cutler’s six seasons with the team.
Regardless of the problems facing the Bears this season, the blame doesn’t all fall on one player. And no one knows that better than a fellow quarterback.
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