Their relationship was upbeat to start with in 2010. But by the time Jay Cutlers 2011 season was over, he and coordinator Mike Martz were having more scratchy moments than quarterback-coordinator should have been having.
Now Martz is gone and Jeremy Bates, a coach in Denver when Cutler was a Bronco, is handling the quarterback. And its a welcome change from the dogmatic Martz, apparently.
I think Jeremy has a really good feel of what I like to do and what I dont like to do, Cutler said Wednesday in the second days practice of organized team activities. Theres plays out here today that I told him, I dont like them. Lets think about getting rid of them. Hes fine with that.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Its a give and take. Thats a breath of fresh air around here, being able to give ideas and everyone giving ideas and lets pick the best ones that work for everybody.
Cutler had similar chafings with Ron Turner when the latter was the coordinator in 2009. Insiders said Turner took an active hand in nearly all position-group meetings and by the end of that season, the two were not in a good shared space.
Cutler is on his fourth different coordinator in five years, but this is the first repeater.
Were doing a little bit different stuff, Cutler said. Were carrying over some stuff from last year. So its kind of a mix between last year and Coach Tice and Jeremy just putting their heads together and finding the best answer for this football team.