Joniak: Without Martz's Handcuffs, Cutler Can Flourish
(WSCR) Listening to the thoughts of Jeff Joniak, the Bears radio play-by-play man, it appears as if Jay Cutler has been freed from shackles.
Under former offensive coordinator Mike Martz, Cutler was voiceless, forced to simply run the play that was called without interjecting any of his knowledge or experience into the game plan.
Now, under new OC Mike Tice, Cutler has a say in which plays the offense runs.
"I believe it's going to work because Jay has a voice," Joniak told The Mully and Hanley Show. "Jay can actually contribute to this process. It is Mike Tice's mission to give his players things they really feel they can accomplish, not what is not possible. That goes for the offensive line, to the backs, to the receivers. He's giving coaches a voice as well, position by position, to contribute to the game plan. That's different (from Martz). It's different even under Ron Turner. Jay has a voice again, and I feel he's as happy and as comfortable as he's ever been.
LISTEN: Jeff Joniak on The Mully and Hanley Show
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"I saw a highlight tape - granted, it was just the highlights, so it's going to look good - of Jay Cutler through his time in Chicago. You forget, we all do, just how great he can be. Some of the plays are just incredible. You forget about them. When you put them all together in a 10-minute montage over three years, in good times and in bad, it's pretty special. I can't wait to see when he actually feels extremely comfortable with a system and an offense to see how he does it. He's got the types of players that will help it - the size to clean up the accuracy, the mobility that he will definitely have because defenses have to really take it easy on how they approach these weapons, if they do come to fruition."
