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Before the Bears can trade Jay Cutler, he has to be healthy.

So surprise of surprises, the Bears say he’s ahead of schedule in his recovery from right shoulder surgery.

“The one thing about Jay is, as far as his rehab from injuries he’s almost a freak in regards to recovering from injuries fast,” Bears General Manager Ryan Pace said, via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com. “So he’s significantly ahead of schedule. He’s rehabbing hard and that’s encouraging.”

Pace said he met with Cutler earlier this week, but didn’t want to delve too deeply into his future there (since it probably isn’t going to be much of one). And his

“You know there’s a lot of real candid conversations that take place and a lot of transparency and honesty, so some of those things I’d like to keep between us,” Pace said. But I think you know once we make a decision as an organization whatever it is, you know he’ll be the first to know and his agent, Bus Cook, will be the first to know, and I made him that promise.

“But again those decisions haven’t been completely finalized yet, but when they are you know he’ll know immediately.”

The fact the Bears can move him along with only a $2 million dead money hit (rather than paying him $15 million) makes it all but certain they will move him, in some fashion.

So if teams are interested in adding a 33-year-old quarterback, the Bears would like you to know that their gently used one is recovering nicely.