Devin Hester is a beloved icon in Chicago Bears history. He is the greatest return man of all-time and hopefully destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was also beloved by his teammates during his entire tenure with the team. Well, not all of his teammates. Recent interviews have revealed that Hester had at least one noteworthy critic.
By the start of 2009, the Bears were trying to find ways to make their offense more explosive. One option they’d already enacted was switching Hester from defense to offense as a wide receiver. This would enable them to get the ball in his hands more often. All they needed was a quarterback to get it to him.
Enter Jay Cutler.
The Bears traded for the Pro Bowl QB that year, hoping he could open things up like never before. There was just one problem. Cutler had strong opinions on how an offense should look. One of those opinions was he didn’t see Hester as a legitimate receiver. This created tension between the two that lasted the entirety of their time together.
That might explain why Hester, in an interview with Master Tesfatsion, didn’t hold back when asked about the mercurial quarterback. Like, at all.
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“Now when it comes to leadership? The worst. … He don’t know how to communicate. He don’t know how to get his teammates involved.
He’s not really a sociable guy,” Hester said. “He’s not a talker. He picks one or two guys and he leashes on them and separates them from everybody.”
Cutler won the battle but Devin Hester won the war
In the end, it was Cutler who ended up lasting the longest of the two in their Bears careers. Hester was gone after 2013 and the quarterback made it through 2016 before he too was out. It’s fair to wonder if things might’ve been different had the team found a different solution at quarterback. Somebody a little more open to what Hester could do.
Sadly there will never be an answer to that question. Cutler had a particular type of receiver he had in mind and couldn’t be swayed from it. Maybe that lack of willingness to adapt was a big reason he never quite seemed to work out in Chicago.