CHICAGO -- Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler broke the thumb on his throwing hand during Sunday's 31-20 win over the San Diego Chargers, according to sources familiar with the situation, and the injury likely will keep him out for the final six games of the regular season.
Cutler plans to undergo further evaluation of the injury on Monday, but the injury will require surgery that will keep him out "at least the rest of the regular season," the sources said.
A team spokesman wouldn't confirm Cutler's injury.
And there isn't much of a backup QB in Chicago, I'm guessing. I'm not expecting the Caleb Hanie era to go well.
EDIT:
I also feel terrible for Packers fans. If the Packers do end up running the table and going 16-0, they'll have to hear from Bears fans that they only managed it because Cutler was out. That debate would rage for the rest of time.
Hanie's done all right in the past, and aside from this coming week at Oakland and Christmas Eve in Lambeau, the schedule is pretty manageable. I've heard some scuttlebutt that OC Mike Martz isn't high on Hanie, so I'm probably more worried that Martz won't adjust the offense to give Hanie his best chance at succeeding (which is probably to wake up the echoes of the Mike Tomczak era).
But long-term, the Bears also have to be concerned that they are down to their last 5 decent offensive linemen, and Cutler will need to not only come back in 6 weeks for a playoff game, he'll need to pick his performance right back up to on par with this recent run.
You never say never, but it looks like this may be just too much to ask - maybe if this happened a month ago, and there was time to play back into shape? Bad break, indeed.
@JayCutler6 will be back as soon as he can - he's a tough little son of a gun. And K-Cav will nurse her boy back to health.
I like Hanie, and Hanie's backup Nathan Enderle may be inexperience in the Pros, but he was a hell of a playmaker for a smaller college in Idaho.
This may hurt the bears chances this year, but they have a pretty easy schedule left, except the Packers of course, and I hope to see some great play and maturation on the part of Hanie and especially Enderle, who I am kind of high on.
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift
It really won't matter. As long as they are in the SEC, they will still win 10 or 11 games due to the other SEC teams lack of offense and their insanely good defense. There is also the fact, that the SEC just beat each other up and only drop one spot.