(WSCR) Jay Cutler’s time in Chicago has been rather up and down.

Since he was traded to the Bears in 2009, he’s shown periods of greatness, followed by episodes of mediocrity.

Cutler is notorious for holding onto the football for too long and taking a sack – something Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said is just part of Cutler’s game.

“I think he has shown, for better or for worse, that this is what he’s about,” Aikman told The Mully and Hanley Show. “He’s a guy who wants to see the (receivers) come out of their routes. He doesn’t have great mechanics in the pocket. He’s obviously got a tremendous arm. He gets out there and competes and he’s tough – all those things I think are important. But if there’s an element of his game I think at this point that you say, ‘Well, I mean, we’d like to improve in this particular area,’ I don’t know that that’s necessarily going to occur. He’s been playing his way and doing it his way for a long time.”

LISTEN: Troy Aikman on The Mully and Hanley Show

For the rest of this interview and other 670 The Score interviews click here.

Cutler is at his best when he’s out of the pocket improvising, but that’s also part of his downfall.

“Even he admitted as much when I was covering him in Denver that he likes to get outside the pocket,” Aikman said. “He likes to be on the move. That’s some of the stuff he did when he was in Denver there with Mike Shanahan. He’s just a guy who wants to see it. He’s not going to necessarily follow through on throws or step up in the pocket. It’s just not what he is. I think that tends to lead to very inconsistent play. That’s probably what we’ve seen from Jay over the years. But then he comes back and makes some unbelievable plays under duress with guys in his face because he is capable of doing those things.