i wouldn't say he was outperformed by leinart and young
Leinart had a rating of 70, young 66.7 and cutler 88.5
Cutler completed 59% of his passes, Leinart 57% and young 52%
Cutler had a TD/Int rate of almost 2-1, leinart and young were both about 1-1
Leinart received 6.7 yards per pass, young had 6.2 ypp, and cutler had 7.3 ypp
cutler won 40% of his starts, leinart won 33% of his starts and young won just over half his starts
cutlers only really bad game was against seattle in terrible weather - other than that his lowest rated game was 84 against SF and he put up a rating of 97 against a tough SD defense
young improved his rating each month and had a rating in the low 70s for the month of december
leinart also improved his rating each month and had a rating in the mid 80s for the month of december
i'm hard pressed to believe cutler was outplayed by the other 2 last year - in fact I think cutler out performed them as a QB - then again, I also think cutler is the best prospect at QB in that draft, he's smart, has a cannon of an arm, good size and decent mobility
with that said, i think he's a far cry from an MVP candidate