page_title: Jay Cutler
section_title: College career
hierarchical_section_title: Jay Cutler / College career
caption_attribution_description: Vanderbilt Quarterback Jay Cutler (#6-white) is absolutely annihilated by U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman 2nd Class Jeremy Chase (#48-blue) in a game Navy would win, 29-26, on September 25, 2004. Also pictured Ryan King (#62-white).
context_page_description: Jay Christopher Cutler is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League for 12 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Bears. He played college football at Vanderbilt and was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft, for whom he played for three seasons. In 2009, he was traded to the Bears, where he played for eight seasons. After being released by Chicago in 2017, Cutler initially retired to become a sportscaster for NFL on Fox's television broadcasts, but returned for one more season with the Miami Dolphins when quarterback Ryan Tannehill suffered a season-ending injury. He retired a second time following the 2017 season.
context_section_description: Cutler attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He started all 45 career games that he played for the Vanderbilt Commodores football team, the most starts by a quarterback in school history. He did not miss a game in college due to injury. The Commodores were 11–35 during his tenure, including going 5–27 versus the SEC. In 2002, Cutler set the school record for touchdowns and rushing yards by a freshman and rushed for more yards than any other Southeastern Conference quarterback that year. The Associated Press honored him with a first-team freshman All-SEC selection. In 2004, as a junior, Cutler completed 61.0 percent of his passes, setting a school record, while throwing for 1,844 yards with 10 touchdowns and a career-low five interceptions.
  The 2005 season, Cutler's final year of play at Vanderbilt, was his most successful. As an 11-game starter, he completed 273 of 462 passes (59.1%) for 3,073 yards, 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions, as he became the first Commodore to win the SEC Offensive Player of the Year (coaches and media) since 1967. With his senior-season performance, Cutler became the second Commodore to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season, while his 273 completions and 21 touchdowns ranked second on the school's single-season list. He led the Commodores to victories over Wake Forest, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Richmond and Tennessee. The Commodores also scored the second most points ever (42) laid upon the Florida Gators at their current home field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Vanderbilt nearly upset the 13th-ranked Gators before falling 49–42 in the second overtime after a controversial excessive celebration call prevented the Commodores from going for 2 at the end of regulation. Reflecting on Cutler's college career, former Denver Broncos safety John Lynch said, "If this guy can take a bunch of future doctors and lawyers and have them competing against the Florida Gators, this guy is a stud."
  Cutler ended his career by leading Vanderbilt past Tennessee 28–24, their first over the Volunteers since 1982 (the year before Cutler was born), and the first in Knoxville since 1975. Cutler passed for three touchdowns and 315 yards, becoming the first quarterback in school history to record four consecutive 300-yard passing performances. Cutler's final play in college was the game-winning (and streak-ending) touchdown pass to teammate Earl Bennett against Tennessee. A finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (nation's top senior quarterback), Cutler was a first-team All-SEC pick by the league's coaches and led the conference with a school-record 3,288 yards of total offense.
  While at Vanderbilt, Cutler was a three-year captain and four-year starter, setting school career records for total offense (9,953 yards), touchdown passes (59), passing yards (8,697), pass completions (710), pass attempts (1,242), and combined touchdowns (76).
  Cutler graduated from Vanderbilt in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in human and organizational development.
caption: Cutler being sacked by Navy linebacker Jeremy Chase
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D2H", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2004:09:25 18:57:35", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "352", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1146", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8519", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1600", "EXIF FNumber": "21/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:09:25 16:04:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:09:25 16:04:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "86", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "86", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "86", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2100", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1735", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1020", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "450", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}