The NFL may never see a player with as many obstacles to overcome as Jay Cutler has had since he was traded to the Chicago Bears in April of 2009.

The quarterback position is arguably the most difficult to play in all of the professional sports. The expectation that goes along with the position is tremendous on its own, and that pressure only increases after a team trades for you and expects you to be the savior of a franchise that was QB-starved for decades. Add in the trade compensation of multiple first-round draft picks and a well-liked quarterback in Kyle Orton, and the pressure on Cutler in the Windy City was overflowing.

Since the arrival of Cutler to the Bears, the local and national media have taken those expectations and put a big target on his back, finding new ways to criticize him that we’ve never seen for any other player and avoiding the reality of the situation he was in and the real football implications.

Somehow the fans forget the parade of quarterbacks the organization marched through Chicago prior to Cutler. The names, when listed, are more like a parade of clowns than professional quarterbacks. Maybe I’m being a little harsh, but most of their performances barely got the team past midfield in the 1990s and early 2000s.

It really should have put it all in perspective when fans saw the type of quarterback play the team was getting when Cutler was injured, but not even Caleb Hanie and Todd Collins were enough to remind everyone how much better their starter was.

Let’s face “the face” of Cutler, the one that says he doesn’t care. He clearly does, his teammates and coaches say he does, but his expressions say different to all of the body language “experts” out there. CBS, FOX, ESPN and NBC producers see this as an easy target for television, opting to have commentators like Stephen A. Smith often cross the line of analysis into personal attacks, rather than talk about how any of it is relevant to the game football (because it isn’t).

Unfortunately, people listen to and believe them all too often. Thus, it’s easy to pile on a player that clearly doesn’t like to answer the slanted questions after a humiliating loss or be talked down to by media members with a clear agenda. They wanted to make Cutler the villain, the QB they traded the farm for that wasn’t winning games.

Cutler has never signed onto the unwritten rule of unquestioned cooperation with the media, and it has always been an unfair part of the process of assessing hs quarterback play. He’s not “likable” because he doesn’t give you (the media) the quote, the smile or the facial expression that you were looking for. Then regardless of the truth, he becomes the easy-to-root-against quarterback that doesn’t care.

This happens despite the real value he brings to the football field. This narrative skews any true analysis of the surrounding talent or any of the factors that go into this team sport. The story of Cutler was already written in their eyes. No need to look any deeper, right?

We’ve heard the analysts and even former players say in previous seasons that Cutler had no more excuses, but when has he really had a good situation around him? Honestly, ask yourself, when has he had the offensive line, the coach, the wide receivers, the tight end and the system to help erase all the double-talking analysts and the behavior and body language experts.

It’s hard enough that this guy battles type-1 diabetes every day, taking shots of insulin on the sidelines after game-clinching drives. Cutler is one tough dude who has never shown fear or quit despite all that has been stacked against him.

In that 2010 NFC Championship Game, he tried to come back in and compete after he got hurt but he couldn’t do it. He actually showed an unselfish side, recognizing he was not helping the team by being out on the field. This criticism was unfair, calculated and quite frankly it was disgusting.

GM Ryan Pace expresses his "extreme confidence" in Jay Cutler: "We're going to continue to build the offense around Jay Cutler." #Bears — Chris Emma (@CEmma670) January 4, 2016

The teams that win championships build around their quarterbacks, and in Chicago, it has been a completely different story until now. One look at the offensive draft picks over the course of Jay Cutler’s first five seasons with the team shows you why they were barely in playoff contention.

2009 (Jerry Angelo) 3rd round: Joaquin Iglesias, WR, Oklahoma

5th round: Johnny Knox, WR, Abilene Christian

6th round: Lance Louis, G, San Diego State

7th round: Derek Kinder, WR, Pittsburgh 2010 6th round: Dan LeFevour, QB, Central Michigan

7th round: J’Marcus Webb, OT, West Texas A&M 2011 1st round: Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin

5th round: Nathan Enderle, QB, Idaho 2012 (Phil Emery) 2nd round: Alshon Jeffrey, WR, South Carolina

4th round: Evan Rodriguez, TE, Temple 2013 1st round: Kyle Long, OL, Oregon

5th round: Jordan Mills, OT, Louisiana Tech

7th round: Marquess Wilson, WR, Washington

Two different general managers failed to build any sort of offense around Cutler, failing to support the talent that they traded for in the first place and setting up their quarterback for a narrative of criticism by the media.

The misses and failures are very clear for the informed football fan, but for some reason, it escapes the guy in the barber shop or the bar bashing the quarterback, the same guy with an unrealistic expectation of Cutler driven by the media, expecting him to turn water into wine.

Cutler has been asked to do more with less, especially where it all matters most, on the offensive line. When you include 2008 first-round bust Chris Williams, it is clear to see how the team failed time and time again to find young talent up front for their quarterback. The offensive line was fatally neglected and had to be pieced together with duct tape, leaving Cutler to figure out the rest.

The only pick that the team truly hit on was Kyle Long. Yet the expectation and the overriding feeling was that he should have been able to win with anyone on the offensive line. This has been a real thorn in the side of the offense and a true hindrance to the quarterback play in Chicago despite the narrative.

So has the lack of receiving options. The one true tight end he had, Greg Olsen, was quickly traded out of town, and Lovie Smith tried to sell a 5-foot-10, future Hall of Fame punt returner as a number one wide receiver. For a while, the Bears lined up a 175-pound fifth-round pick in Johnny Knox, a former third-round slot option in Earl Bennett, a castoff in Devin Aromashodu and a “looks-like-Tarzan, plays-like-Jane” tight end in Kellen Davis. And somehow, the Cutler took them to the NFC Championship game.

Don’t even get me started on Roy Williams.

What Cutler has been able to do with the Bears is pretty miraculous. A lesser quarterback in his shoes would have been out of the league years ago after the pounding he has taken, as well has having to play under so many offensive coordinators and their varying concepts and philosophies.

Even as the failed coaching staffs changed around him, the expectations were always sky high. Cutler was expected to learn the offense instantly and operate it masterfully or else it was “same old bad Jay.” Yet, he continued to earn the respect of any teammate he played with and is still growing in the position.

The agenda doesn’t match the tape because the tape shows a guy that should be frustrated, should get mad and or angry, because he gets smacked around worse than someone sparring with Mike Tyson. Throughout his time in Chicago, despite so much stacked against him, Cutler has never once thrown a coach, teammate or an administrator under the bus. He never pointed the finger at anyone else and continued to stand up for coaches and players even when they weren’t always there for him.

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You never hear Cutler making excuses. Yes, he was caught on television several times frustrated, but how much of a story do we really get from 15 seconds of seeing him on the sidelines? For some writers, that was enough to make sweeping generalizations about the player. It gets clicks, views and sparks debate.

Football players that want to win get frustrated. Sometimes things aren’t communicated or actions on the sidelines within the heat of the moment are the very things that inspire late-game heroics. Football is an emotional game played by men with 53-plus personalities meshing on game day. It’s physically, mentally and emotionally challenging on every single play.

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The head coach and his expectation is the umbrella to Cutler’s comfort. The defensive-minded Lovie Smith is not in the league because he couldn’t find coordinators on the other side of the ball. The cerebral Marc Trestman couldn’t handle the locker room tried to save his job by allowing the blame to be placed on the one guy who was an easy target, Jay Cutler.

Ron Turner, Mike Martz, Mike Tice and Aaron Kromer all lacked polish when it came to game plans and using the talented quarterback appropriately. Cutler wasn’t the coach killer. He had coaches that were getting him killed. It’s no coincidence that none of them have been NFL offensive coordinators anywhere else since.

Martz came the closest to building a successful offense, but he was trying to run his schemes with terrible offensive tackles, and the guy behind center became the scarecrow to the flying monkeys, getting ripped apart both on the field and in the media.

Adam Gase and now Dowell Loggains have one thing the others did not have, a head coach and general manager that get the big picture. John Fox understands he’s the head man in charge in Chicago, and his energy eases the pressure on the locker room and ultimately the quarterback.

"I followed him into Denver," said John Fox of Jay Cutler to Arizona media in conf. call. "I wish he'd been there when I got there." #Bears — Zach Zaidman (@ZachZaidman) September 17, 2015

So now, when it comes to the future of the Bears offense, you have Dowell Loggains, who has a clear cut relationship with the quarterback and a plan in place to do what is best for him. The word was Cutler really pulled for and wanted the coach years ago when Loggains was coaching with the Tennessee Titans, but the team denied Lovie Smith’s request to try and bring him in.

Loggains now has the opportunity to take over the offense under John Fox with a penchant for building offensive lines and establishing a dominant running game that allows big plays over the top. In other words, the perfect offense for Cutler.

Related John Fox excited about offense under Dowell Loggains

As the cancerous personalities are removed from the locker room and the John Fox regime is taking over, the true value of Cutler is now finally being showcased.

The right head coach is not just saying the right things, he’s doing the right things. It is making it a clear point, not just sound bites, to build the future around the guy that has been underappreciated in Chicago, connecting the dots with a coordinator that understands the mentality, the athleticism, the downfield passing and the overall comfort in the play-action game.

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It is important for us all to see the big picture. Jay Cutler is a very good quarterback that could be great. In the ultimate team sport, it is important to put a fair perspective on what truly has happened as opposed to what someone is trying to spin. The tape never lies, and when most were trying to run this man out of town, the true football analysts recognized the miracles that this man has made and continues to make every given Sunday.

It’s a miracle he is still standing, it’s miraculous the amount of change he’s been able to overcome, and the fact that he only trails Tom Brady for most fourth quarter/overtime game-winning touchdown passes in the history of the NFL, says all you need to know.

So, Chicago, I say to you, make a change and embrace the miracle man. Change the narrative and recognize the mountain this one man has had to climb. Hopefully now with Fox and Pace, he will truly have the proper tools to finally get the Bears to the top.