Brian Billick Has a "Terrible" Two-Word Comparison for Jay Cutler: Jeff George [UPDATE]

Brian Billick was a guest on ESPN’s Mike and Mike this morning, and Jay Cutler came up in conversation. The former Ravens coach compared Cutler to Jeff George. He meant this unfavorably, and said that the two quarterbacks have similar stats (though George played for longer than Cutler has so far), and unsustainable touchdown-to-interception ratios. Let’s take a look:

JAY CUTLER

JEFF GEORGE

Noting he’s playing in a more favorable passing environment, Cutler’s numbers look slightly better than George across the board. Beyond that, the “quarterback win” stat is a little bit odd. In my opinion, it’s not as telling as its proponents make it seem, but it’s also not completely meaningless like some would have you believe. In any event, Billick implied that Cutler and George had similar winning percentages, which, as you can see, is just untrue.

There are obvious temperamental implications, too. Though Billick doesn’t say it here, Cutler’s detractors often say that his recurring bad body language has a causal relationship with his sloppy interceptions. IF HE LOOKED LIKE A WINNER HE’D BE ONE. It’s not necessarily true. Cutler’s demeanor really isn’t much different when he’s winging the ball around and the Bears are winning in San Francisco than when they’re losing to Buffalo at home.

As a Packers fan, it’s weird for me. I actually like Cutler, and not just because he’s easy to make fun of and almost never beats Green Bay. I find myself oddly rooting for Cutler and Marc Trestman because I like to see people succeed by doing things in stark contrast to institutional norms. If this makes sense, as much as I’d hate it, I’d also love to see them prove the haters wrong.

The NFL is weird. A team could be 2-3 right now, and hoist the Lombardi trophy in February after going on such a tear that it all seems inevitable in retrospect. This isn’t to say the Bears will be the team to do that, but that things like this feel premature:

A former teammate of Cutler's has told me each of the last four seasons: "The Bears are NEVER going to win with Jay at QB..."
— Michael Wilbon (@RealMikeWilbon) October 5, 2014

Eh, who really knows?

UPDATE: As Sports Pickle’s DJ Gallo points out, five games sure has changed Billick’s opinion on Jay Cutler:

As I said on @NFLN_Playbook, my bold prediction for the 2014 NFL season: Jay Cutler wins league MVP.
— Brian Billick (@CoachBillick) September 5, 2014