In Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Falcons, Bears QB Jay Cutler had two completions of at least 50 yards.
This marked the first time in 32 games with the Bears that Cutler had performed such a feat.
In his previous 31 games, he had connected on a total of six passes of 50 yards or more.
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Jay Cutler will become the first Chicago Bears QB to start three straight season openers since Erik Kramer.
Kramer started five straight season openers from 1994-1998.
“If you’re going to be the quarterback of the Chicago Bears or any team, whether you like it or not, it’s a part of the gig,” Cutler said recently in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
Look for Cutler to step up as a leader on Sunday now that 13-year Bear Olin Kreutz is out of the locker room.
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The Chicago Bears are the only team who kept five undrafted free agents. The Cowboys, Seahawks and Colts tied for second with four each.
In total 58 undrafted rookies made NFL rosters, the most since the 2003 season.
57 undrafted rookies made NFL rosters last season, 37 in 2009 and 33 in 2008.
The high amount of undrafted rookies making teams wasn’t predicted considering when the lockout ended. If anything everyone thought it would be hard for these undrafted rookies to make teams, but I guess they proved us wrong.
Now the Bears have the most in the league with five, only time will tell if it’s a bad or good thing for them.
Wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher, defensive end Mario Addison, tight end Kyle Adams, linebacker Dom DeCicco and safety Winston Venable are the five undrafted rookies who could make an impact for the Bears this season.
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The last time the Bears had a 100-yard runner and receiver was on Nov. 12, 2006 when Thomas Jones gained 113 yards on 30 carries and Muhsin Muhammad caught seven passes for 123 yards in a 38-20 road win over the New York Giants.
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In two seasons with the Bears, Jay Cutler has thrown 50 touchdown passes to 10 different players: Greg Olsen (13), Johnny Knox (10), Devin Hester (7), Earl Bennett (5), Devin Aromashodu (4), Kellen Davis (4), Matt Forte (3), Desmond Clark (2), Rashied Davis (1) and Brandon Manumaleuna (1).
The Bears’ Beattie Feathers in 1934 became the first rookie (as well as first player overall) to ever rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season when he gained 1,004 yards on 119 attempts (8.44 avg) in just 11 games.
Feathers would never again come close to that with his second highest season rushing total being 350 yards.
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Walter Payton lead the NFL in kickoff returns with a 31.7-yard average and a long of 70 yards as a rookie in 1975.
14 of his 17 career kickoff returns came that season.
In addition to being a tremendous rusher, receiver and blocker during 13 years with the Bears, he also threw eight touchdown passes and even punted once as a rookie for 39 yards.
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In seven seasons with Lovie Smith as their head coach, the Bears are 42-8 (.840) when leading at halftime, 13-36 (.265) when trailing and 8-5 (.615) when the score has been tied.
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The highest a tight end has ever been drafted is with the 5th pick in the NFL Draft.
This happened in 1961 when the Chicago Bears chose Mike Ditka out of the University of Pittsburgh.
Mike Ditka played 12 seasons in the NFL, six with the Bears. He played in 84 games in his six seasons in Chicago.
He made 316 catches for 4503 yards and 34 touchdowns. He averaged 53.6 ypg. He was voted to five straight Pro Bowls from (1961-1965).
He went on to win two Super Bowls in four years with the Dallas Cowboys. He spent his last two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles appearing in 20 games.
Ditka had great success as a player and soon there after coached pretty darn well too. Ditka was an assisted coach with the Dallas Cowboys from 1973-1981.
He was hired by the Bears as the head coach in 1982 and stayed there until 1992. Ditka finished his coaching career with the Bears posting a 106-62 record and .631 win percentage.
He led the Bears to seven post season appearances in his 11 seasons as head coach. He coached the Bears to a Super Bowl XX win in 1985 and two other NFC Championships in which the Bears fell to the San Fransisco 49ers.
He went on to coach the New Orleans Saints for three years (1997-1999) and didn’t have great success, going 15-33 with .313 winning percentage. He often refers to those three years as the worst years of his life.
He now is a legend in Chicago owning three of his own steakhouses called Ditka’s, two in Illinois and one in Pennsylvania.
He works for ESPN appearing on NFL Sunday Countdown and ESPN 1000 in Chicago regularly.
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Greg Olsen became the first Bears tight end to gain more than 100 yards in a postseason game in the NFC Divisional game against the Seattle Seahawks last season.
Olsen caught three passes for 133 yards and one touchdown in the 35-24 win over the Seahawks. Olsen had 41 catches, 404 yards and five touchdowns all season.
He wasn’t really used to his full potential because of poor play from the offensive line, but the offensive line improved over the second half of the season and Olsen played much better.
Olsen has been working out with Matt Forte for a good part of the off-season and it has been reported that the Bears offense got together yesterday for a practice led by QB Jay Cutler.
Look for Olsen to have a better season because he is looking for a big contract once his rookie one ends this season.
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