Cutler and White; It's a Question of Trust...............

[Deleted]

Kevin White and Jay Cutler: It’s a Question of Trust
by Mike "Boomer" Burzawa 21 hours ago Follow @bgoboomer


The on-field relationship between Kevin White and Jay Cutler is off to a rough start. It’s up to Kevin White to earn Cutler’s trust.

We talk a lot about chemistry on the football field between many position groups. The offensive line needs time to gel. The linebackers need to read their keys off the defensive line to get the run fits right.

Perhaps nowhere is that chemistry more critical than between a quarterback and his wide receivers. That’s why the relationship between Kevin White and Jay Cutler needs to be mended quickly after their Week 1 miscue led to a momentum-killing interception from which the Chicago Bears offense never seemed to recover.

Let’s recap the scenario:

The Bears had taken a 14-10 lead prior to halftime and were getting the ball back to the start the second half. It looked like momentum was in their favor, on the road against a tough opponent. On their first series of the second quarter, the Bears faced a 2nd and 5.

Cutler dropped back to pass and when pressured, threw to the outside, where he was expecting rookie wide receiver Kevin White to be. White appeared to give up on his route and the ball was picked off:

White finished the day with three receptions for 34 yards and appeared to secure himself a spot in Jay Cutler’s doghouse. Cutler was visibly upset after the pick, motioning a finger toward the sideline, showing White (and everyone else watching) what he was expecting on the route.

White, who was selected #7 overall, was considered one of the top talents in the 2015 draft class, despite limited experience running a pro style offense or even running a basic route tree at West Virginia. He suffered a leg injury in OTA’s that ended up costing him his rookie season. Even though he’s technically not a rookie, Sunday was his first NFL action.

As the Tribune’s Dan Wiederer points out, we’ve got to dial back expectations a bit for White:

White’s development is going to take time. And maybe a lot of it.

That means fans – and more importantly, White’s teammates and coaches – are going to have to dial their patience up several notches as the young receiver struggles through a flurry of mistakes. The book on White out of college was straightforward: superb combination of size, speed and strength but an obvious lack of polish as a route runner. The latter doesn’t change overnight.

Was it jitters that led to White’s less-than-stellar performance? His lackluster performance was magnified by the 107 yards and decisive touchdown scored by Texans rookie wide receiver Will Fuller.

If there’s one thing we know about Jay Cutler is that he has his guys that he trusts. I’ll never forget the first preseason game when Cutler and Devin Hester faced the Buffalo Bills. Cutler threw up a jump ball and Hester had no chance to haul it in. Then, Cutler said that Devin was not a “go up and get it guy” and it felt like the two never clicked. Cutler had Earl Bennett and Greg Olsen as “his guys” early on in his Bears career. In later years, that became Brandon Marshall, later Alshon Jeffery and Martellus Bennett.

It’s tough to break in with Cutler and get on his good side. Kevin White could have all the talent in the world, but if the quarterback doesn’t trust him to be in the right spot catching the balls thrown his way, he’ll be a bust in Chicago. We’re far from that point, but after a lost season and a rough start to his career, Kevin White is going to have to earn not only Jay Cutler’s trust, but the rest of the fan base’s as well.

[datreebearz]

This makes complete sense because Osweiler and Fuller they have been jelling for how many years now? Oh, that's right bad example. I always like when it's your team fukking up its about not jelling BS. While the other team has no jellying issues same if not worse time length together for Osweiler and Fuller. Maybe it comes down to one or both not being the caliber player they should be great players make all players around them better without layfan noticing.

[Deleted]

After having looked at the video replay at least a dozen more time I do see the point that some of our other posters have made.  To a degree we can lay some of the blame for the pick on Cutler but how much?  Ten percent?  Twenty Percent?  One third?  Probably no more than that I'd say.

Looking again that the video a couple of things stand out to me.

1) Cutler did look for other receivers before making that throw.  Whether he was going through his progressions or simply trying to look the coverage off of White only he would know but his first looks were not to White.

2) I've made the point several times that Cutler expected KW to run a 15 yard out which is pretty much the standard depth of an out route in the NFL.   Some teams would make it between 15-18 yards but 15 yards is pretty typical.  The LOS was the 22.  Cutler threw on target to the 37 yard line right where he expected White to be had he run the route the way the play called for.  No matter what terminology the Bears use for that it was pretty obvious that it was a standard call for White to run that 15 yard out route.

3) Because he was unable to step into the throw Cutler made it a bit of a lob but it was no air ball and it was thrown high enough that even in tight coverage KW height should have allowed him to win the jump ball battle over a much shorter DB had he completed his route.  The throw was no different than he might have made to AJ under the same circumstances knowing there was a very good chance AJ would win that battle against a much shorter defender as well.

4) The DB had to dive to make the pick which IMHO means no matter how well he covered White he would still have been trailing him had KW run the route as Cutler expected him to and he would have been open and able to haul in a very catchable ball.  I don't see him gaining much YAC because the DB would have been there to make the tackle but the pass was well beyond the 1st down marker and the drive would have continued from that point.

So in summary there was an obvious communication error in there somewhere because based on what I can see in the video reviews what Cutler expected to happen is pretty clear. What the cause of KW's confusion was I don't know and he hasn't said so I guess we'll never know but I don't think there's any question about what Cutler expected him to do and the pass was spot on as far as that goes.

Hopefully they'll get this worked out better from this point on because if Cutler does completely lose all of his trust in him White won't see many throws come in his direction and then we truly will have a wasted pick playing at least for the time being.

[omc1969]

If White can't execute a standard play like that it will take more time for him to gain trust from Jay. Worse than a simple rookie mistake IMHO.