Jay Cutler cracks joke at press conference after being benched

Give credit to Jay Cutler: Despite enduring a terrible week as a professional quarterback, he was still able to maintain his sense of humor.

Cutler cracked a joke at his press conference on Thursday, which was his first time speaking with the media since the news emerged that he was being benched for Jimmy Clausen. In the press conference, Cutler made reference to most of the media missing his press conference after the Bears’ Monday night loss to the Saints.

“I’m glad you guys could make it. I missed you after the game,” he joked at the start of his media session.

Cutler only stuck around for a few minutes on Monday before leaving that press conference since the writers were not around.

As for his thoughts on the benching, Cutler said he was “shocked at first and then disappointed.” He also said he did not see the benching coming.

“Any time you lose a lot of games and you don’t play as well as you hope, there’s a chance that can happen,” Cutler acknowledged.

“There’s a lot of money involved in my contract, which comes with a lot of expectations and a lot of responsibility. Whenever you’re not winning and performing like the way you should, that’s the likelihood that it can happen.”

The benching came as a shock to most around the NFL. Though Cutler is having a poor season in terms of expectations, he is still their franchise quarterback, while Clausen is a low-level backup. Nobody expected this. But just because he has been benched does not mean Cutler feels he cannot return to Chicago after the season; he reportedly said he felt like he could work with coach Marc Trestman in the future. That is, if both are still around in the Windy City next year. Not many are expecting them to be back.