Count Jedd Fisch among those who see Chicago as NFC North favorites now that the Bears have acquired quarterback Jay Cutler from Denver.  Fisch, who worked closely with Cutler last season as Denver’s receivers coach, spoke enthusiastically to Sports Headliners about the 25-year-old quarterback.

“I think the Bears are going to be a Super Bowl favorite because of Jay,” said Fisch, who became the Gophers’ offensive coordinator in January.  Cutler made the AFC Pro Bowl roster after last season, his third in the NFL.  Among his numbers: 4,526 yards passing, 25 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

In a league where perhaps half the starting quarterbacks are nothing special, coaches like Fisch know the value of a Cutler.  “Yeah, I would say half might be high,” Fisch said. “They’re all elite athletes, elite of the elite of the elite. But on the same token, there’s only a few that are special.  I think Jay is one of those guys that’s going to be special.”

The Vikings won the NFC North last season without a special quarterback.  The Bears have been looking for an extraordinary quarterback for many years, much longer than the Vikings.  The Cutler acquisition changes the thinking about Chicago.

Fisch likes the Bears’ prospects for winning the division, but adds a qualifying statement. “Yeah, as long as their defense stays healthy and as long as they’ve got a couple (of) receivers around him,” he said.  “They’ve got a really good back (Matt Forte), and Jay Cutler is a Pro Bowl quarterback.  So when you have a Pro Bowl quarterback you immediately should be at the top of the pack.

“For example, Jay is 13-1 when they’ve (the Broncos) kept a team to 21 points.  That’s like 94 percent of their games.  Look at how many times the Bears have kept teams under 21 points (eight times last season).  See how many games they should win. Jay’s a great person and a great player.  He’s gotten a bad rap for no reason.”

The Bears finished 9-7 last season, second in the division behind the 10-6 Vikings.  To make Fisch’s point, the Bears lost three games when they gave up 22 points or less.

It was rumors this off-season about the Broncos and new coach Josh McDaniels wanting to trade Cutler that reportedly set off the young quarterback’s unwillingness to stay in Denver.  Fisch said Cutler isn’t a complainer and that negative perceptions about him are wrong.

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The Wolves season ended last night.  It makes sense that the game will end Kevin McHale’s association with the franchise.  This spring just might see another major development: the hiring of a new coach with franchise ties.

There are so many valid reasons for McHale not to return as coach that the logic dwarfs contrary positions.  The franchise that’s missed the playoffs for five    consecutive seasons has HELP written all over it.

The Wolves need to restructure their basketball operation from the basement to the upper levels.  Neither performance nor public perception warrants any other direction.

Coaching has value in the NBA but talent more so.  For about 15 years McHale and others in the front office have frequently disappointed with personnel decisions. Pick your decade including years ago when the Wolves under-valued Chauncey Billups and couldn’t convince him to stay here, or the improper contract procedure charged by the NBA over Joe Smith and ultimately a penalty that cost the team five first round draft choices.  More recently missteps have included these draft night blunders: trading future Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, and giving up Mario Chalmers, among this year’s best rookies, for cash and two 2009 second round draft picks in a 2008 deal with Miami.

McHale impressed years ago when he drafted Kevin Garnett as a teenager out of high school.  But picking high schooler Ndu Ebi in 2003 on the first round was as bitter as the Garnett choice was sweet.

McHale impressed again in December when he left his executive position to replace Randy Wittman as coach.  In January the team was among the hottest in the NBA and McHale deserved credit for instilling confidence and enthusiasm in his players.  Not so impressive, though, has the performance of McHale and the players been since star center Al Jefferson was injured, with a record of 7-27 since February 4.

Owner Glen Taylor has promised a new basketball decision maker in the front office.  Presumably that executive will have the authority to employ the coach of his choice.  It seems improbable that the new hire would want to retain McHale, a person with such a long history of power, success and failure with the franchise.

Why, too, would McHale want to continue with the organization?  Taylor is on record multiple times saying McHale will not return to the front office.  McHale dislikes traveling and the 51-year-old looks like he’s aging faster than he should.

The one-time Hibbing schoolboy star whose Gophers jersey is memorialized at Williams Arena won three NBA titles with Boston and is officially included among the league’s 50 greatest players.  Now he walks with a noticeable limp (he courageously played for Boston with a broken foot) and his reputation has been bruised for years in his home state.  He should recognize it’s time to move on.

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McHale’s seat on the bench might be filled by a Wolves alum, but apparently not by Flip Saunders.  Saunders, who was fired by the Wolves in 2005, got the same directive after last season in Detroit.  Earlier in the week Saunders, 54, was reportedly near a deal to become Washington’s coach.

The development seemingly ends the hope that Saunders, who kept his permanent home here even after being hired by Detroit, will return to the Wolves organization.  Saunders is popular with local fans, many of whom clamored for him to get the Gophers job two years ago.

Hiring Saunders would have been a marketing boost for the beleaguered franchise that annually operates in the red and whose team performs before thousands of empty seats in Target Center.  Ultimately, though, it will be about winning as a cure-all to restore the franchise’s image and that could happen with other coaches including Wolves alums Tom Thibodeau, Tyrone Corbin and Sam Mitchell.

Thibodeau was on Bill Musselman’s first coaching staff here and has a reputation as a defensive master including as an assistant for the NBA champion Celtics.  Corbin and Mitchell are former players under Musselman.  Corbin, although never an NBA head coach, has earned praise as a Utah assistant and Mitchell had a successful run at Toronto where he was 2007 NBA Coach of the Year before being let go last year.

People often ask how Taylor, the likeable Mankato billionaire, can run his businesses with such success and manage the Wolves with…well, you pick the word.  In the weeks ahead Taylor, who has been encouraged for years to revamp the basketball front office, will have the opportunity to write a new business plan at 600 First Ave. North.

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