Chicago Bears Losing Jay Cutler, QB Will Undergo Thumb Surgery “Soon”
It’s official Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler will undergo surgery to fix his broken thumb, an injury he sustained during his teams 31-20 victory over the San Diego Chargers this past Sunday.
The Bears front office first announced that Cutler would have surgery on Tuesday but then quickly changed their statement to say a date has not yet been chosen.
“He’ll be out an extended period of time,” Smith said. “The plan now is for him to have surgery on the thumb soon, and I can’t tell you exactly how quick, but as soon as possible. Not today, but hopefully fairly quickly we can have surgery on the thumb.
“And I also said, the plan is to get him back at the latter part of the regular season. This is what I wanted to know, ‘Was it a season-ending injury?’ No. From what I’ve been told right now, we can expect him back at the end of the regular season. For me, that’s enough to go on.”
Cutler sustained his regular season ending injury while attempting to make a tackle on Antoine Cason who intercepted one of his passes with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Cutler made the tackle and the Bears went on to win the game 31-20. After his injury Cutler completed two more passes for 24 yards to complete his teams final possession.
Speaking about his quarterbacks injury Brian Urlacher said:
“It’s devastating … It’s horrible, and I felt worse for him than I did for us. It stinks for us because he’s having such a great year. He’s our leader. He’s the guy we turn to for pretty much everything.”
All may not be lost for the Chicago Bears who are now 7-3 and in the midst of a wildcard race, former coach and ESPN NFL analyst Mike Ditka believes the Bears can still make the playoffs if Caleb Hanie acts as a team player and doesn’t try to win games on his own.
Hanie played in two games during the 2010 NFL season, completing 8 of 14 passes for 66 yards with one interception, he also nearly led the Bears to a come from behind victory against the Green Bay Packers after Jay Cutler left last years playoff game with a minor knee injury. During that playoff run Hanie was 13 of 20 with 153 yards, a touchdown and two interception.
In the meantime Lovie Smith hopes to sign a veteran QB to the teams roster since the Bears now only have rookie Nathan Enderle to rely on should Caleb Hanie be injured.
“The plan is for that. With Jay being out for awhile, we need another quarterback on our roster,” Smith said. “The plan is to look for a veteran, preferably, to come in and help us.”
In the meantime the Brett Favre rumors can begin, especially since Cutler and Favre share the same agent in Bus Cook. Rest easy Bears fans, there’s very little chance that Favre would join the Chicago Bears
In the meantime look for the Bears to focus much of their effort on the running game as they have in the last five weeks which is probably a good idea for Hanie who is now forced to run a complicated Mike Martz offense midway through the season while chasing a wildcard playoff berth.
