Jay Culter taking second-team snaps. Demotion looming?

BOURBONNAIS — So there was quarterback Jay Cutler during team sessions, working behind the No. 2 offensive line, throwing not to Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall, but to Josh Morgan, Eric Weems and other members of the receiving corps.

Demotion? Not quite.

Last year the Bears came to camp with just three quarterbacks — Cutler, Josh McCown, Matt Blanchard — in part because the plan was to give Cutler increased snaps in what was a new offense.

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This year, with four quarterbacks, the approach is still to acclimate him, this time to personnel. The Bears avoided significant injuries on offense other than those to Cutler, and a goal is to have comfort levels with more just the starters.

“Jay is taking probably another 3 to 4 [second-team] reps per period,” said coach Marc Trestman. “We did that to give him more work.”

A secondary benefit is to enable more complete evaluation of the second-tier receivers, seeing how they perform with a top quarterback.

“He's not only working with the 1’s,” Trestman said, “but he's working with the guys, not only Alshon and Brandon, Marquess [Wilson] but the other guys are in this competition to make this team at wide receiver.”

-- John Mullin, CSN Chicago