Bears get Jeff George 2.0

Ok, by now everybody knows the news Jay Cutler and a 5th rounder to da Bears for Kyle Orton, da Bears' 1st and 3rd rounders this year AND their 1st-rounder next year.

Wow.

Bears owner Jerry Angelo got what he wanted, a high-profile Pro-Bowl quarterback with a cannon for an arm. They added LT Orlando Pace to the mix to protect the young QBs blind side; Pace will probably still make the Hall of Fame but he has missed almost half of the games in the last three years, so it's a little early to say what will happen there.

Broncos owner Pat Bowlen got what he wanted, which is to be rid of the bad-attitude, me-first Cutler, who has the physical gifts but has not shown the maturity that is needed to guide an NFL franchise. Cutler is physically gifted, some say the most physically gifted young QB in the league...how often does the most physically gifted QB win it all vs. how often does a team with a hard worker (like Kyle Orton, who played much of last year on a blown-up ankle) win the Super Bowl? Allow me to refer you to the Super Bowl winning QBs since the year 2000:

Kurt Warner - A true wild-card, nobody saw him coming.
Trent Dilfer - Nobody expected big things from him.
Brad Johnson - Nobody expected big things from him.
Tom Brady - Josh McDaniels was his QB coach.
Tom Brady - Josh McDaniels was his offensive coordinator.
Ben Roethlisberger - Nobody expected big things from him.
Peyton Manning - Pedigree QB, everybody expected this. Eventually.
Eli Manning - Little brother, same pedigree...a little more surprising.
Ben Roethlisberger - People had seen him win and play hurt but many still expected little.

Cutler will throw for more yards than Kyle Orton next year, that is pretty much a given even with the utter lack of WRs in Chicago. Whose team will win more games? My guess is the team being led by a team-first guy.

Cutler's career has two paths: some people think of him as the next Brett Favre, an unabashed gunslinger who has all the tools and no fear........or Jeff George, a cannon-for-hire whose potential never came close to being realized. There are those in Denver who think he will be the next Ryan Leaf, but that seems a touch extreme.

This deal was a no-brainer for both teams. The Bears needed a big name under center, the quarterback carousel in Chicago hasn't been working for a long time. Cutler has the numbers to back up the big deal...except the wins. It's tough to pin all of that blame on a QB who handed the ball to seven different RBs last year and had to stand on the sideline and watch as his team's D let people run and throw all over them....but he has still lost more games than he has won.

To be fair, so has Orton, but nobody is calling Orton a franchise QB. Yet. We'll see what Josh McDaniels can do with him - McDaniels does have a fairly respectable record when it comes to working with QBs (let's remember here that he develped Tom Brady and Matt Cassell) and there must be a reason he didn't want Cutler as his guy.

Both teams got what they need, but the Broncos can do a lot with three first-round picks in the next two drafts. They can combine a first-rounder and one of their later picks to try and move up a handful of spots and get Mark Sanchez or Matt Stafford if one is still available, or they take Knowshon Moreno or maybe they get the defensive beast that is Brian Orakpo from Texas, who must pundits have projected as a starter right out of the gate.

Bottom line - the Broncos are flush with options and draft picks and the Bears have hitched their entire franchise to a rocket-armed head case who could turn out to be the next Brett Favre or the next Jeff George.

As with everything, only time will tell.