Not even Cutler knows when he'll be back
Injured Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has no way of knowing when — or if — he will be back this season from the broken and dislocated thumb he suffered in Week 11 against San Diego.
“I've got to be smart about it,” Cutler said. “Obviously I'd want to play next week if they'd let me, but I don't think that's going to be in the cards.
“It could be I'm done for the season. I just have to realize that there is a long-term picture here, but at the same point I want to be out there, and my teammates want me to be out there.”
Since Bears coach Lovie Smith hasn't heard anything to the contrary, he will continue to hold out hope that his franchise quarterback could return by the end of the regular season.
But he acknowledged Wednesday afternoon that Cutler might not be back.
“A possibility?” Smith said. “Yeah, it's a possibility. There are a lot of possibilities on a lot of things. But you can't go that far. He's rehabbing and I'm just hopeful he will be able to (return).
“I'm going to stand by my comments that I made (at the time of the injury). Until someone tells me that he's not (returning), we're going along like he will be able to come back.
“And nothing was said otherwise. Surgery went well. I still expect and am hopeful that Jay will be able to come back at the end of the year like I said the first day.”
For now Cutler has begun light rehabilitation designed to regain range of motion, which is about all he can do aside from waiting for the healing process to play out.
During the surgery performed by Dr. Randy Viola in Vail, Colo., Cutler had three screws and two pins inserted to facilitate the healing process and provide stability.
The pins can be removed in from 3-10 weeks, but the screws remain. There is no definitive timetable for his return.
“We'll have to see week by week and just take some X-rays and some CT scans in the next few weeks and see if the bone's healing like it should be,” Cutler said. “I don't want to put a real number on it because I just don't know.”
As far as the timetable for gripping and throwing a football or taking a snap from center, it depends on how rapidly the bone heals and how much discomfort Cutler experiences with activity.
The removal of the pins also is determined by how they affect Cutler's comfort level.
“It's just a matter of if they're not hindering me being able to throw the ball, if I'm comfortable with them, if they're not pinching,” Cutler said. “There are a lot of factors.”
Cutler has never been sidelined for anywhere near as long as the thumb injury will keep him out, and the inactivity doesn't agree with him.
“This is horrible,” he said. “I don't like this. I don't like (just) coming to meetings. I don't like watching practice. I don't like any of this; this is not what I signed up for.
“It's not anything I've ever been a part of, so it's definitely hard on me. The sooner I can get back out there the better.”
Since Cutler was injured trying to get into position to make a tackle after throwing an interception — intended receiver Johnny Knox slipped and fell — he was asked about the possibility of, in the future, tiptoeing away from the action, as many NFL quarterbacks have done.
“Yeah, I'm gonna start doing that,” he said, laughing at the notion that he would beg off.
Turning serious, he said: “I'm going to try to make the tackle. In that particular instance, we were playing so well and Johnny was having such a good game.
“As soon as I let it go, I knew we were in trouble and I took off running because I knew that Johnny was down. That's just how I play football, and it's going to be hard for me to change that.”
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