When Robbie Gould went down with a quad injury in the last quarter of the NFL season, the Chicago Bears were forced to go out and sign a temporary replacement. They opted to sign Jay Feely, a long-time kicker with the Arizona Cardinals who was cut before the 2014 season. Feely’s four games with the Bears came and went, and now he’s back on the free agent market.
Today, Feely ripped into the Bears after his month-long stay at Halas Hall. Appearing on Mad Dog Sports Radio, Feely called out fired head coach Marc Trestman and current quarterback Jay Cutler.
First, here’s Feely questioning Trestman’s leadership:
With Trestman, it was a little awkward when he spoke. And he didn’t really connect with guys. You can have that as a coach if you have a strong locker room and you have leaders in the locker room. If you don’t have leaders in the locker room, you don’t have a coach who inspires, then you have a losing season.
Now, for the Cutler comments:
….when a quarterback is not a leader, there’s gonna be a vacuum there.
And:
Jay Cutler can win on the field. But he would be so much better and the team would be so much better if you’re a leader off the field as well. I never saw him lead verbally. If he doesn’t want to be that person, if it’s not in his DNA, then you’re always gonna have a vacuum there that somebody else needs to step into and fill.
As far as the comments on Trestman go, it didn’t take a genius to figure out Trestman lost the locker room at some point in the season. It’s also well known that Cutler isn’t a Ray Lewis rah rah type of leader. So, none of this is exactly groundbreaking news. (Though saying the “team would be so much better” if Cutler was more vocal sounds like a topic for First Take.)
Here’s the thing, though. Jay Feely was brought in to kick for the Bears because Robbie Gould got hurt. If Feely wants another kicking job in the NFL, I’m not so sure criticizing the team he last played on — for four games — is the right way to go.
There’s always room on First Take, though.
Photo via Bears Goggles On
