Jay Cutler finally has a reason to put some pants on again. The former Chicago Bears quarterback is joining Fox Sports as a broadcaster, moving from the pocket to the booth this fall.
Rumored for a while now as he languished in free agency—especially after Tony Romo jumped from Dallas Cowboy to blazer-wearing fella on CBS—word of the career change broke on Friday morning.
NEWS. It's official. Jay Cutler has been hired by @nflonfox . Will join Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis in the booth this season.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) May 5, 2017
Cutler will essentially be a replacement for Jon Lynch at Fox after the former NFL player became general manager of the San Francisco 49ers. Burkhardt and Lynch worked four years in the booth together and built up a pretty solid rapport, but only time will tell when it comes to just how good Cutler actually is at the job.
Much like Romo, Cutler explored a potential role as a broadcaster after seeing little interest in his quarterbacking services this offseason. Cutler was released by the Bears in March after an awful 2016 campaign that saw him start just five games and go 1-4.
Cutler hasn’t had a winning record since 2012, when he went 10-5 as a starter and the Bears still failed to make the playoffs. Bears fans were tired of waiting for him to get it together, and his release was the start of a rebuilding effort in Chicago that resulted in them trading up to draft North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
Who gets the better of that transaction is yet to be determined, but it’ll be interesting when Cutler calls Bears games. One wonders how critical Cutler will be of the rookie quarterback, and how critical viewers at home will be of the rookie broadcaster.
