Jay Cutler – September 20, 2017
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Quarterback Jay Cutler
(Head Coach Adam Gase talked today about the system that he’s using now might even be a little bit better for you because of changes compared to 2015 in Chicago as far as some of the things that you can do in this offense. Do you agree with that? How is that the case?) – “It depends. What did he say? What changes?”
(I think more personnel.) – “Yes, if you start playing with a DeVante (Parker) and a Jarvis (Landry) and a Jay Ajayi and Kenny (Stills) and Julius (Thomas), you start putting those pieces together, they’re going to make a lot of systems look good.”
(He mentioned some things involving zones as well, so there were some strategic things. How comfortable are you here?) – “Really comfortable. I think it goes back to a lot of it has to do with the personnel. You get those guys around you, the offensive line played well. They make it go. I just kind of feed them the ball and watch them work. It’s fun being behind center with those guys.”
(When you see WR DeVante Parker one-on-one outside like that, do you just say, ‘I’m going to through it out there and see…’) – “All of those guys are kind of like that. If you want to play us one-on-one, we’ve got a lot of options. We’ve got a lot of ways we can beat you up. (The Los Angeles Chargers), they did a lot of zone. They weren’t going to play that game with us. They kind of zoned us out. They tried to put eight in the box; but even eight in the box, Jay (Ajayi) is either going to make the first guy miss or run him over and get his yards. It’s tough to stop.”
(We spoke to Head Coach Adam Gase about the conservative game plan in the first half. You’ve been an aggressive quarterback all your career. Is that in any way … Did that frustrate you in any way or is it just part of it?) – “No. I knew. We didn’t want to … We kind of wanted to get things going a little bit. With the last 10 days, things being crazy, I think easing things in there, trying to get the ball to different guys and trying to keep it third-and-manageable. I think that was the biggest thing – not getting into third-and-longs, not getting into situations where we were fighting the sticks.”
(Your thoughts on the Jets defense, the challenges this weekend?) – “It’s still a Jets defense. Todd Bowles is still one of the best ones out there. They’re going to do a lot of different things. The front seven is still going to give you fits. They’ve got a talented back end. You’ve got to be prepared for a lot of different looks. That’s what makes it so difficult.”
(Nonetheless, the Jets are not playing very well. Do you see this as a really good opportunity to be 2-0?) – “If we don’t play good football, we can go up there and lose a game really quickly. We don’t want to look past them; don’t want to look in the rearview mirror. We’re just going to concentrate on them and try to put together a good game and get a ‘W.’”
(I should’ve been more prepared, but the quote from Head Coach Adam Gase was, ‘This really kind of fits Jay better, because coming from an offense that was predominantly drop back in Chicago, we didn’t have the play actions that we do now, because we weren’t running outside zone.’
From that standpoint, how does this fit you?) – “We have a lot more, I think, outside zone here. (Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach) Chris (Foerster) put that in. That just kind of opens up, like he was saying, your play-action game. We were more inside zone with their transition from Denver to Chicago. It was a lot more inside zone. We didn’t have the complete package with the outside zone and a lot of the outside zone play-pass stuff. When you start putting that stuff in there and you start getting eight-man boxes and some one-on-ones outside, it can really open up the field; but then if you want to drop back you got three, four, five guys that legitimately can catch the football.”
(Does your nimbleness surprise teams even though they know you? You’ve been in the league a long time, but it might be an underestimated part of your game.) – “I think they’ve got a lot to worry about in general with everybody else out there. Trying to contain me in the pocket and worrying about me getting outside, I think that’s one of the last things that they … If it happens, it happens.”
(As far as what you got out of the no-huddle last week, is there another level to take that to in terms of frequency, in terms of effectiveness?) – “We can always clean things up. I’ve talked to (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) about it and the rest of the guys. They know what we can clean up and what we did well. We’ll try to improve for this next one.”
(You got to ball early and often to WR Jarvis Landry. What makes him such a security blanket for you?) – “They were playing a lot of zone and he was working the middle of the field. He got a few run-pass options out there, we kicked some out to him. A few screens that we kicked out to him. He got some yardages. It was kind of how it went. As the game unfolded, we were able to pick some stuff outside.”
(Obviously, there was more aggressive play calling – Head Coach Adam Gase would acknowledge that – in the third quarter. Is your relationship with him such that you can good naturedly say at halftime, ‘Let’s try to open it up,’ or do you never share that view with the head coach?) – “It depends on where we’re at. It depends (on) the game, how he’s feeling, how the offensive line is blocking. First game, I kind of knew what he wanted to do this first game, so I kind of left him alone. Adam knows. He has got an aggressive nature at heart. He wants to score points. Three (points) at halftime, he knew that wasn’t going to win the game. We were going to have to do some stuff offensively, push the ball downfield to win this one. He’s not dumb. He’s the head coach here for a reason. He has been successful for a reason.”
