When Jay Cutler returns healthy, the Chicago Bears quarterback will be the starter once again. Head coach Marc Trestman and backup quarterback Josh McCown have both supported this idea. However, no one has endorsed Cutler as the quarterback of the future leaving many to wonder if his time in Chicago is finished when his contract expires at the end of the season. There will be many teams looking for a new play caller come 2014 and apparently the Minnesota Vikings are the latest to consider the veteran.
There are many assuming Cutler will be out at the end of the year. His contract is up and the team has already said they have no intentions of franchising him due to the raised costs in 2014. McCown has proved worthy enough to stick around, leaving the Bears with the option of extending the backup for cheap and drafting a rookie to develop under quarterback guru Trestman. So where does that leave Cutler?
The Vikings have an unstable quarterback situation that gets worse each week. Both Christian Ponder and Matt Cassel have taken their stabs at being the team's starting quarterback and have failed more times than they have succeeded. The Minnesota Star Tribune is reporting that Minnesota will likely part ways with both quarterbacks at the end of the season. Third-stringer Josh Freeman will be a free agent and has already expressed interest in finding a new team to start fresh. That leaves Cutler as an option.
Minnesota certainly has the weapons to lure in Cutler who has a big arm. Cordarrelle Petterson, Greg Jennings and Kyle Rudolph are filled with potential if the right player is throwing them the ball. Cutler could get more out of them than Ponder or Cassel did. The Bears will likely at least let the quarterback test out the market and the Vikings could make a strong offer.
Of course there is still the route of the draft to figure out the quarterback situation in Minnesota. The team will be poised to earn a high draft pick and this year's class is loaded with talent. The Vikings could spin their wheels around someone like Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel or AJ McCarron. They are all strong candidates that could develop in time as a franchise player. But, the Vikings tried that already with Ponder and the experiment has failed so far.
If Cutler becomes available, Minnesota will jump. This is the team that signed Brett Favre. They want someone proven and Cutler is that guy.
