"If you had told me three months ago that I would be lamenting the loss of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler as the fantasy playoffs approach, I'd have said you were crazy. But that's exactly the situation I find myself in.

After shuffling quarterbacks for most of the season — first relying on Joe Flacco, then trading for Philip Rivers - I decided two weeks ago to give Cutler a shot. A waiver-wire pickup six weeks into the season, I was only keeping him around for emergencies or as possible trade bait. When I could find no takers, and with my other QBs continuing to underperform, I made the move.

By then, Cutler had started to live up to his potential — fantasy and otherwise — so I put aside my natural skepticism as a Bears fan, benched Rivers and inserted Cutler into the starting lineup for a matchup against one of the two teams I was chasing in the standings."