Cutler gets his guy Bates in Chicago | National Football Post. While the Green Bay Packers are still the class of the NFC North, the Bears shouldn't be overlooked. They've played in an NFC Championship as recently as the Packers, and they appeared on their way to the playoffs until they lost Jay Cutler for the season.

2011 wasn't Cutler's best season, Football Outsiders ranked him just ahead of Rex Grossman, so the Bears are looking to make changes to their coaching staff. Now he's been reunited with Jeremy Bates, who was his quarterbacks coach in Denver. Though they'd be better off if they could reunite Cutler with his old teammate.

Will Bates make much of a difference? He wasn't their first choice, that would have been former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Greg Olson. The Bears have promoted Mike Tice to offensive coordinator and he'll be using common sense to turn their offense around. Also, Bates was fired by the Seahawks after one year as their offensive coordinator in 2010, which may have been because he recommended Charlie Whitehurst as a starting quarterback.

I've always thought Cutler and the Bears could be a dangerous if they could get him into a good offensive system. These recent moves don't look too promising, and he'll now be coached by his third different offensive coordinator in four seasons.