If your response to Jay Cutler winning his first game with the Miami Dolphins was "don't care," you're probably lying.
On a day when Cutler's successor, Mike Glennon, turned the ball over three times in an ugly Bears loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the former Bears starting quarterback moved to 1-0 as the Dolphins' new man under center.
Cutler was pretty good in the 19-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, completing 24 of his 33 passes and throwing for 230 yards and a touchdown. The Dolphins reached the end zone just once, getting four made field goals from kicker Cody Parkey.
The game's biggest play came at game's end, with Chargers kicker Younghoe Koo missing a 44-yard field-goal try to seal the deal for the Dolphins.
But most importantly, Cutler didn't the turn the ball over at all in this one, a particularly noteworthy stat considering Glennon threw a pair of interceptions and fumbled a ball away in the Bears' loss.
While Bears fans are clamoring for the team to replace Glennon with Mitchell Trubisky, the No. 2 pick in this year's draft, John Fox indicated that Glennon won't be getting replaced as a result of his bad performance Sunday. It'll be important, then, as long as Glennon keeps his starting job, to compare him to the alternative: not Trubisky, but Cutler.
Most fans and observers were in agreement that the Cutler Era needed to end, that something different was required after a largely unsuccessful stretch with Cutler as the Bears' quarterback. And that's fine. But Cutler would have provided a desired veteran presence, the thing Glennon is supposed to provide as Trubisky matures into a starting NFL quarterback. Glennon hasn't been the solution to anything through two weeks. Meanwhile, Cutler is interception-free and 1-0 through one game with the Dolphins.
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That's not saying that Cutler — nor Glennon, for that matter — will continue to perform the way he did in his first game for the remainder of the 2017 season. But it will be worth keeping an eye on Cutler in Miami and comparing what he does down there with what Glennon's doing up here. Because Cutler very well could have been the Bears' quarterback this season.