Rich Gannon: Cutler has flat-lined, has no upside

Former NFL quarterback and CBS football analyst Rich Gannon has been tough on Jay Cutler and the Bears.

Earlier this season, he said watching Cutler makes him ‘sick to my stomach’ and suggested the Bears’ bench their $54 million quarterback.

On Monday he wasn’t pulling any punches, either, telling 670 The Score’s “Mully and Hanley” show that Cutler has “flat-lined.”

“You look at Cutler,” Gannon said, “he’s been with a bunch of different coaches and the results have been pretty similar. This guy, in my opinion, has flat-lined. I don’t see the upside in Jay Cutler. You look at the numbers, what are they? They’re very mediocre, average numbers.”

Gannon also proposed what he believes to be the source of Cutler’s struggles: trust issues.

Cutler, Gannon said, has never been able to trust his coaches or offensive coordinators — and last week’s debacle surrounding Aaron Kromer and his critical comments didn’t help.

“He had bad experiences early in his carer,” Gannon said. “What happened in Denver when [Josh] McDaniels went in there. He went to Chicago, had some bad experiences in Chicago. I think he got sacked with Mike Martz, 60-some times, led the league. Mike Tice comes in, he’s the play-caller and he’s never called plays before.

“So now all of a sudden you get to the point where ‘I don’t trust anybody. No one’s looking out for me. No one’s protecting me. I’m getting hit all the time.’ You don’t trust, and if you don’t trust the coordinator, you don’t trust the play-caller, you don’t trust they have your best interests in mind, you got no chance.”