Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune addresses the Jay Cutler situation:
While the Bears have no contractual deadline forcing a move, adding Cutler to the league-wide supply of quarterbacks — either by trade or release — could help their search, hoping another quarterback-needy team fills its vacancy with him instead of dipping into the draft pool.
I have to confess that I didn’t consider this aspect of the situation. It would, indeed, be helpful if another team picked up Cutler before the draft. But I don’t think it will help that much.
Cutler is a veteran that might be in a position to help you win now if you are a quarterback short. But those teams probably don’t want to draft a quarterback in the first three rounds, anyway. They’re going to be focused on filling needs not planning for the future with a project at quarterback.
The Bears are obviously ready to move on from Cutler. But I’m still going to maintain that in the absence of a trade, that the Bears hang on to him until they are absolutely sure that they won’t need him.