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Believe it or not, there are corners of the world where Jay Cutler is a sympathetic figure. In fact, Chicago has become the capital of that sympathy, while nationally, Cutler takes shot-after-shot from talking heads and current and former players.

“(He’s) hot garbage,” former NFL linebacker and current CBS analyst Bart Scott said on CBS Radio Friday morning. “Come on, man. It’s like you’re trying to trick yourself again, man. How many times are we going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say, ‘Oh, he has all the tools. He has a big arm.’ Blah blah blah. So did Jeff George. Some people ain’t got the ‘it’ part – and that’s the most important part, the stuff in between your ears. He just don’t got it, man.”

There’s obviously some validity in saying there’s an x-factor missing in Cutler’s game, but calling him “hot garbage” is simply a cheap shot. Not surprisingly, Scott followed up his hot take with inaccurate statements about Cutler’s contract.

“He’s made a lot of money doing it,” Scott said. “Nobody’s going to take that contract. He’s exactly right: You’re married to me. You’re stuck with me, at least for a couple of more years.”

In reality, Cutler’s contract is actually one of the more affordable and attractive contracts among competent NFL quarterbacks. The total cash on his deal in 2017 will rank 12th among active QBs, and he will make less than guys like Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Tannehill, Sam Bradford, Colin Kaepernick, Matthew Stafford and Brock Osweiler. Plus, the structure of Cutler’s contract is something front office executives and owners dream of. The guaranteed money is completely gone, meaning the remaining four years of Cutler’s deal are essentially a series of one-year options. The cash in each one of those years may seem steep, but it actually fits in accurately with the current quarterback market and it’s proven every year that there is always a team desperate enough for a quarterback (see: Brock Osweiler’s contract, the Browns signing Robert Griffin III and the Vikings giving up a first-round pick for Sam Bradford).

In other words, not only are the Bears not stuck with Jay Cutler, but they should actually be able to get something in return for the quarterback.

Of course, it’s not surprising to see another out-of-town analyst take an inaccurate stance against Jay Cutler. Remember, it was just Week 2 when Charles Woodson questioned Cutler’s toughness on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown show. Literally minutes later, Cutler took the field against the Eagles with sprained thumb ligaments in his throwing hand and tried to play through the injury.

“If it was up to Jay, he’d have finished the Philadelphia game,”Bears head coach John Fox said. “I mean, he would have played the next week.”

But while the out-of-town stupid on Cutler is seemingly at an all-time high, the lack of support for the quarterback inside Halas Hall is what’s really surprising. After Cutler re-injured his thumb in that Week 2 game against the Eagles, backup Brian Hoyer came in and played well, putting up impressive stats with incredibly safe throws between the 20s. Apparently lost in the numbers, however, was that the Bears never scored more than two touchdowns in a single game with Hoyer under center and only scored one total in their last two games without Cutler. The reality is that the Bears are dead last in points per game (15.9) and went 1-4 in Hoyer’s five starts.

Anybody with even an average football eye could see that the Bears missed Cutler’s big arm and aggressive mentality, even if it meant a couple of extra interceptions along the way. Most importantly, the Bears’ best offensive player — and best source of offense — Alshon Jeffery, missed Cutler. No play proved that more than the fateful 4th-and-8 in Indianapolis when Hoyer missed Jeffery wide open for what should have been a game-winning touchdown.

So then why does Cutler’s return feel so unwelcome by head coach John Fox?

During Hoyer’s run as starter, Fox created unnecessary doubt about Cutler’s status with the team by saying, “I don’t think there are any givens,” when asked if Cutler would get his job back when healthy. A few days later, Fox was given another chance to publicly back Cutler and he responded by saying: “It’s performance-based. So anybody that’s performing well, I don’t think we’re going to be likely to change.”

But as soon as Hoyer broke his arm, the tune changed quickly.

“Some things that I say go somewhere that I wasn’t really intending,” Fox said Monday. “At the end of the day — obviously Jay’s our starter.”

Keep in mind that the same week Fox made his “performance based” comments, national reports started leaking out — including by Fox’s known buddy Jay Glazer — that Hoyer was playing to keep the starting job even over a healthy Cutler, an idea that only makes you question the team’s evaluation of the quarterback position.

And then there was the odd sight in recent weeks of a seemingly healthy-enough Cutler catching and throwing footballs on the side while Hoyer ran the offense in practice.

Why wasn’t Cutler practicing? He wasn’t medically cleared, Fox kept saying.

And yet, as soon as Hoyer broke his arm in Green Bay, Cutler was suddenly cleared. Fox, who usually won’t even tell you if his fourth-string cornerback will play, surprisingly announced Cutler as his starting quarterback for Monday’s game against the Vikings — a full week before the game.

“I think Jay kinda knew all along what our plan was,” Fox said Monday, just 15 days after telling the media: “We don’t have a plan (at the quarterback position).”

So does Cutler have Fox’s support?

“He doesn’t have a choice, I guess, at this point,” Cutler said. “Brian is out, so I’ve got to go. I’ve had good conversations with Foxy this week, last week, the week before. There’s never been any strain in our relationship. We’re both very open and honest, and we’re on the same page. We just want to win football games.”

Of course, then there was the Chicago Tribune report this week that said Fox has told close friends he’s “done” with Cutler. Fox responded by saying there’s “absolutely no truth to that,” which is an answer Bears fans should hope is true. Not only do the Bears not have a suitable Plan B on their roster, but it’s in the franchise’s best interest to get as much out of Cutler the rest of the season and maximize his trade value.

Because, again, contrary to Bart Scott’s beliefs, Cutler’s contract is affordable and there almost certainly will be a team willing to take the quarterback.

But regardless of Cutler’s future with the team, he deserved better from the Chicago Bears while he was hurt. Intentional or not, doubt was created inside and outside Halas Hall because of the public comments made by John Fox.

Cutler may not be perfect and he certainly hasn’t lived up to the expectations set when the Bears gave up two first round draft picks for him in 2009, but he’s played a lot of football for this franchise. He’s had his head beat-in behind bad offensive lines and suffered through bad offensive coordinators. Other than play very well in 2015 and try to play through a critical injury the first two weeks of 2016, what exactly did he do to lose his job under the current regime?

We’ll never know if Cutler would have actually backed up Hoyer, but the only reason we’re talking about it is because his head coach didn’t publicly back him when he had the chance — twice.

Given all the cheap shots and sideswipes the quarterback deals with from peers like Bart Scott, Charles Woodson, and even ex-teammates like Martellus Bennett, Cutler deserved better from his own head coach.

Adam Hoge covers the Chicago Bears for WGN Radio and WGNRadio.com. He also co-hosts The Beat, weekends on 720 WGN. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.