30 NFL quarterbacks who got better after leaving their first team

15. Jay Cutler

Expectations were high for Jay Cutler when the Denver Broncos decided to trade up in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft to land the former Vanderbilt star. While the first three years of his professional career weren’t all that terrible from a statistical standpoint, Cutler didn’t actually have his first winning season until 2010 when he was a member of the Chicago Bears.

Shortly after Mike Shanahan was fired as the head coach of the Broncos following a disappointing 2008 season, it wasn’t too long before Cutler would be on the trading block, as things quickly went south between the two parties.

In the three years leading up to the trade, Cutler displayed all sorts of potential to be the quarterback of the future in Denver, but seeing how he would go on to spend the next eight years in Chicago, it all seemed worth it.

Despite leading the league in interceptions with 26 during his first year with the Bears in 2009, Cutler took a major leap the following season by helping Chicago reach the NFC Championship game before falling to the Green Bay Packers.

Not to bring up a sore subject, but as Bears fans remember well, that was the famous game in which Cutler was injured as a result of a sprained MCL, which brought all sorts of criticism to the table.