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So... $126 million over 7 years with $54 million guaranteed for Jay Cutler.

He's 30, so the odds of him seeing the whole contract are very low, but with that large a guarantee, the Bears have to be assuming he can be effective for many years to come.

Cutler has always seemed kind of average to me, but he did have what was arguably his best season (despite the ankle and groin injuries leading to 5 missed games).

Still, that's an awful lot of money to spend on a quarterback who few would argue is in the top 10.

its essentially a 3 year deal without all the bells and whistles. $18 mill a year the first 3 years.  That is his $54 mill.

I really expected the Bears would move on from him.

They probably wanted to. But tough to find quality QB's so they figure stick with the devil you know. They are in the same boat as the Cowboys. Have a good QB who can at times be great. Tough to kick that type of guy to the curb and move on to an "unkown"

Cutler is an above average QB whose strengths are having an arm strong enough to make the deep throw, and the balls to pull the trigger on it. Chicago has arguably the best 1-2 WR punch in the league with Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery (with a "talk to me when you're healthy" nod to the Julio Jones/Roddy White tandem in Atlanta). They have an excellent pass-catching TE in Martellus Bennett and one of the best pass-catching RBs in the league in Matt Forte. I see Cutler's contract as Da Bears organization saying that they've got the pieces, and want to keep them together as a unit for stability and see what they can do.

Sure... and you don't think $18 million a year is a lot for a guy like Cutler?

$18 mil a year for 3 years. Not bad for a guy not worth a franchise tag of about $16 mil, who was supposed to hit the open market.

CHI has floundered for years without anything close to a franchise QB.  Say what you want about Cutler, but he's certainly a step up from what the Bears had been throwing out there before.

Just like Dallas with Romo, sometimes you have to accept "good enough" as your QB and just upgrade at other positions.  There are only so many All-Pro QBs to go around.

They faced the same problem that Baltimore had in the offseason. They didn't want to pay big money for their current QB, but there were absolutely no alternatives. Good QB's don't make it to free agency.

Cutler is no where near Romo's level, though.

Cutler's CAREER BEST (season) passer rating is LOWER than Romo's WORST.

going rate for above average NFL QB's these days

Romo got $18 million a year (everything included) and less guaranteed. He's the SIXTH HIGHEST paid NFL quarterback. Or was, until Cutler took his spot.

http://overthecap.com/top-player-salaries.php?Position=QB

Inflation.  Cutler's deal is in the same ballpark as Romo but was signed a year later.

Miami paid around the same for Wallace as they did for Marshall, but Marshall was signed 3 years ago.

They should have rolled with McCown and let Cutler go.  Dude isn't crappy but he isn't worth that kind of $$$ IMO.

Salary cap stayed within a few percent, so inflation year-over-year makes little sense as an argument.

Cutler got one heck of a deal. There's just no other way to look at it.

Monster money for an "above average" (maybe) quarterback.

Put me in the camp that thinks that this is good for Chicago.  Cutler is a good, and sometimes great player.  And yeah, $18/yearly is a lot, but what else are you going to do?  The way the NFL works now, you have to have a good/great player at the QB spot to win games.  Game managers just don't cut it anymore.  Scoring is way up and you can't put money in defense and skill positions at the expense of QB.  ...not anymore.

The backup played really well during his time. I've spoken to a Bears fan who isn't pleased by this move at all.

Maybe the real mistake by the Bears was to fail getting a possible replacement as a backup. Jordan Palmer and best-available-McCown-brother just doesn't cut it and forces them to reach some kind of deal with Cutler.