Rex Grossman made 31 starts in a Bears uniform. Kyle Orton started 33 games for Chicago. Neither one of them was considered for a long-term extension by general manager Jerry Angelo. But Jay Cutler, on the other hand, got extended through 2013 just five starts into his Windy City career. The price was $30 million, with $20 million of it guaranteed.

Grossman got off to a red-hot start in 2006, just like Orton came out of the gate playing very well this past season, but when Angelo was asked if he ever got close to giving either one of them a big-money contract for the long haul, he pulled no punches.

"No," Angelo said before practice Wednesday at Halas Hall, "not really. ... You're going to know when it's right. You're going to know it. I'm going to know it. Nobody's going to have to tell you any more than they're going to have to tell me. We felt this was right. Those situations were different. Certainly good football players, but we did what we felt was right at the time, now and going forward."

Grossman had a 5-0 record and a 10-to-3 TD to INT ratio five games into 2006, while Orton had a 3-2 record and a 7-to-4 TD-to-INT ratio five games into 2008, but Cutler's 3-2 record and 10-to-7 TD-to-INT ratio five games into 2009 just feels right to Angelo, even if the numbers aren't remarkably better.

"When we make decisions, the decisions are based on the now and in the present," he said. "We're building something that's going to last. We're not knee-jerk here. It's not a one-year plan, and we're not going to make decisions based on desperateness. We've always been consistent with that philosophy."

Orton has moved on to Denver and currently sports a surprising 6-0 mark, although Grossman is nothing more than a clipboard carrier behind Matt Schaub in Houston right now.