Associated Press

Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has been rated and projected on all levels of the spectrum from good to bad throughout his career.

Lately, it's mostly been toward the bad end both on and off the field. But second-year wide receiver Kevin White is keen on changing that trend, as he spoke to Sports Illustrated's Ben Baskin about his teammate:

Jay Cutler is a good person. He wants to win. He's a good teammate and he cares a lot. He is not selfish at all. ... He's just a great guy. We need to clean Jay's name up. He has a bad rep for no reason and I don't like it. I came in and everyone was telling me, 'Jay's an assh--e, you're going to hate Cutler.' I was like, I want to get to know this dude first. And it's just not true at all. None of it.

It's a substantial shift of opinion on a quarterback who has been lambasted by critics. In 2009, Eamonn Brennan of NBC Chicago ran a piece titled "Jay Cutler: Not a Nice Guy," while Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN First Take in 2015 that Cutler is "one of the worst people to be a quarterback in the NFL that I have ever seen," via SportsGrid.

White has yet to play a regular-season down alongside Cutler, as the receiver was forced to miss his entire rookie year due to a shin injury after being selected seventh overall in the 2015 draft out of West Virginia.

But after watching Cutler play over the past year, White attempted to make an interesting analogy in describing how his quarterback is perceived: "Jay is like the pretty girl that doesn't wear makeup and doesn't go out, so nobody really knows that she's pretty."

White originally made these comments in June, but they were shared by Baskin on Thursday after Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett and his brother, New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett, spoke with ESPN The Magazine's Mina Kimes, holding nothing back in describing current NFL players, including Cutler.

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Michael claimed that Cutler is the "worst quarterback in the NFL," while Martellus, who spent three years with the quarterback in Chicago from 2013 to 2015, said, "I'd be open and he'd throw into double coverage."

Yet Cutler put up two of the better seasons of his career in 2014 and 2015, throwing for over 3,600 yards and 20 touchdowns each year. It still hasn't been enough, though, as the Bears posted losing records during that span, and he led the league with 18 interceptions in 2014.

But with a healthy White lining up alongside Alshon Jeffery in 2016, the perception of Cutler could change if he's able to put together a solid season.

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com.