LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Jay Cutler countdown continues, and it reaches zero on March 12.

That’s when the Chicago Bears must either cut Cutler or guarantee $10 million of his salary for 2016.

Bears general manager Ryan Pace and coach John Fox have remained behind closed doors at Halas Hall and at a distance from the media, and there has been no indication they plan to cut last year’s NFL turnover leader.

Basically, keeping Cutler would mean that barring a trade they’ve probably committed to two more years of him. Cutler’s fate holds the key not only to who plays that position in Chicago, but in many ways how much free agency help can be added at other positions.

One of the main factors weighing in Cutler’s retention is the fact the team signed Dowell Loggains as quarterbacks coach. Cutler and Loggains are close from when Loggains was with the Tennessee Titans and Cutler was in Nashville at Vanderbilt.

While Pace hasn’t said he will keep Cutler, he did say what he looks for in terms of intangibles when he analyzes the position.

“It’s his preparation, his study habits and leadership and all those traits that come with the position,” he said. “Those are things that stand out to me.”

Cutler has never been praised for leadership, and at times some on the outside have questioned his study habits — although no one with the team has ever openly done this.

Pace’s experience with how quarterbacks approach the game has been largely through Drew Brees, so he admits to being spoiled in that regard.

“I am,” he said. “And we’ve talked about it. There’s different ways. All these quarterbacks, if we went through them all, they all have different personalities, just like we do.

“I don’t think you have to be just like him (Brees), and I think it would be wrong for me to be that focused in on that that’s the guy that it has to be.”

It would be highly unlikely for Cutler to play out his full contract at a cost of $91 million over five years, but if he is cut, it will produce $19.5 million of dead salary-cap space for a team in drastic need of adding talent — especially on defense.

Their linebacker corps is almost void of 3-4 types and only a few defensive linemen look capable of switching to a two-gap system. Considering their safeties have struggled since the middle of the last decade and that both starting cornerbacks are coming off injuries, any penny they can devote to free agency will help.

The Bears also have to weigh who they could get to play quarterback if they do cut or trade him.

Cutler has survived four offensive coordinators and would appear there will be a fifth considering the options facing the Bears at the position. The free agency market isn’t exactly stockpiled with potential improvements.

Cleveland’s Brian Hoyer worked with Loggains last year, but has started only 17 games and has a passer rating far worse (76.8) than Cutler’s (85.2). Mark Sanchez is another option with a passer rating even worse (74.1) and less of an arm.

Drafting Marcus Mariota at No. 7 could be an option, but he’s regarded by many as an Oregon system quarterback, and that’s not a system the Bears are running. At his hiring, Pace made it apparent he believes, as most teams do, that building a winner must be done largely through the draft.

Still, Pace comes from a franchise that added talent wisely in free agency through the years.

“What I like doing is balancing: what are the strengths of the draft vs. what are the strengths of free agency, and kind of balancing that out,” Pace said. “I think we’ll look in free agency and I’ll know the positions that are strong, areas that we can attack. And hey, we’ll do that, we’ll be calculated.

“In a perfect world, you address a lot of your needs in free agency to open up the draft for best player available.”