Former Bears captain rips Cutler's behavior

One former prominent teammate of Jay Cutler has spoken out against the quarterback after the way he carried himself Thursday night in the Chicago Bears’ meltdown at Lambeau Field.

Adewale Ogunleye, the retired defensive end who was a captain on the team with Cutler in 2009, said Cutler crossed the line when he bumped left tackle J’Marcus Webb coming off the field during the first half of the 23-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Cutler was sacked seven times, the second-most in his career, and threw four interceptions as the offense took a trip back in time to how it was in 2009 when Cutler led the NFL with 26 interceptions, six more than any other player. All the while, Ogunleye acknowledged Webb was overmatched by the Packers, specifically outside linebacker Clay Matthews, who had 3 ½ sacks.

“If you are not doing your job, yeah, someone should be allowed to get in your face,” Ogunleye said during an interview on the 'Mully & Hanley Show' Friday morning on WSCR-AM 670. “But if you live in a glass house, you can’t throw any stones. So the way I am looking at the game, no one is yelling at Jay when he is throwing the ball three (four) times to their defenders. And you’ve got to have some sense of accountability. At the end of the day, you start losing the respect of your teammates, you start losing the respect of that offensive line when publicly you’re bumping people and yelling at them in their face. I don’t think it is the right thing to do.”

Ogunleye said he didn’t believe Cutler would challenge linemen like he has – at least not publicly – if longtime center Olin Kreutz was still with the team. Cutler and Kreutz played together in 2009 and 2010 and Kreutz was the unquestioned leader of the locker room.

“To go and bump another player, you know the only reason Jay Cutler can bump on offensive lineman and not get his butt beat is because he is the star quarterback of the Chicago Bears,” Ogunleye said. “If this is in the street, and you bump a man that is 300 pounds, Jay is in serious trouble.

“The team is going to have to police itself. Maybe Brian (Urlacher) will have to say something. The more you yell at them, the more pressure you are putting on your own teammate.”

Ogunleye used examples of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as guys who may get on teammates but aren’t over the top.

“People really like them,” Ogunleye said. “I’ve met Tom Brady many times and played against him. Genuinely, he is a good person and you want to see him successful. The problem with Jay is we’re not sure about his emotions. The only thing we see is when he is really angry. Even when he does a really good job he doesn’t show a sense of happiness.

“There is no good to Jay, there is no smiling. All we see is when he is pissed off, when he is angry and that reflects in the way people might view him in the locker room. But a guy like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, genuinely they are nice people and they overextend themselves. Tom Brady can be the biggest diva in the world – he has that right, he has won Super Bowls – but he is not that guy. I think that is why he is even more likeable.”

bmbiggs@tribune.com
Twitter @BradBiggs