Forte: Cutler ‘gets a bad rap,’ McCown ‘the leader that we need’

Two different quarterbacks, two different perceptions.

Matt Forte has been able to experience both as a former teammate of Jay Cutler on the Chicago Bears and a current teammate of Josh McCown of the New York Jets.

‘I would say Jay was a great teammate’

The running back thought Cutler was misunderstood … and he thinks McCown is exactly the kind of man the Jets need at the most important position.

“As a teammate, Jay, he gets a bad rap, I would say, because they focus so much, I guess, on his body language on the sideline and in interviews they focused on that a lot, too, more than he was the guy off the field,” Forte told Bruce Murray and Ross Tucker at the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp at NFL Films at Mt. Laurel, N.J.

‘I have a lot of comradery with Josh, being that I played with him in Chicago’

“And, also, in the locker room with us, so I would say as a teammate Jay was a great teammate. He hosted all kinds of things for the offensive linemen and skill guys to have comradery things together and hang out and do all these things together, so as a teammate he did a great job, I would say.”

Forte first got to know McCown when they were teammates with the Bears. And he knows what McCown’s positive influence can have on the running back’s new team.

‘Josh is a great leader, a Christian guy like myself’

“It’s been great,” Forte said. “I have a lot of comradery with Josh, being that I played with him in Chicago. Just familiarity with him being in the huddle with me and it’s been good. Josh is a great leader, a Christian guy just like myself, and he’s been able to reach out to guys throughout the locker room already and gain that comradery, that teammate that you need in that leader position at the quarterback position that we need and were pretty much lacking.”