The NFL world was turned upside down this week with the surprising news that Philip Rivers is coming out of retirement to sign with the Indianapolis Colts. Rivers, who is 44, hasn’t played a down of football in nearly five full years since he quarterbacked the Colts back in 2020. But thanks to injuries to Daniel Jones, Anthony Richardson, and now Riley Leonard, Indianapolis is desperate to keep their special season alive and believes Rivers can still provide a spark.
It’s one of the craziest stories in an already wild NFL season, and it got some people thinking about if the Bears could ever find themselves in a situation like this with one of their former quarterbacks. Marc “Silvy” Silverman of ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy show decided to find out.
On Tuesday’s show, Silvy connected with former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler to see if he would ever entertain coming back to his former team in an emergency situation if Caleb Williams and Tyson Bagent both went down with injuries. Cutler is three years younger than Rivers but hasn’t played a down of football since 2017.
Despite the eight-year gap from his playing days, Cutler wouldn’t hesitate to suit up again if Ben Johnson was calling plays. “Jay responded with, ‘And play for Ben? I would show up with bells on,'” Silvy said.
Of course, this is a highly unlikely situation, and even if Williams and Bagent were suddenly unavailable, the Bears still have veteran Case Keenum in the building who can operate the offense. But this is another example of Johnson’s reputation around the league. After Cutler’s tenure with the Bears, which spanned from 2009 to 2016, he played one more year with the Miami Dolphins in 2017 under Adam Gase, his former offensive coordinator.
Johnson was on Gase’s staff at the time, and Cutler got to know him well. The former gunslinger sang Johnson’s praises during an interview with Waddle & Silvy last Friday and clearly would relish the opportunity to play quarterback with him calling the plays.
Realistically, Cutler’s playing days are well behind him, and the Bears have a quarterback room they believe in. But if a situation arose like the one with Rivers and the Colts, Cutler would jump at the opportunity to be in the same position as Williams right now.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Would Jay Cutler unretire to play for the Bears if needed?
Reporting by Brendan Sugrue, Bears Wire / Bears Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
