Jay Cutler expected to miss 2-3 weeks for Bears
A lot of Chicago Bears fans probably wish that they never see Jay Cutler suit up for their team again. For at least the next few weeks they’re going to get it.
After throwing a ghastly interception on Monday night Cutler left the game with a sprained thumb, supposedly suffered Week 1 in Houston. According to NFL media reporter Ian Rapoport, Cutler is expected to miss the next two to three games:
With his sprained thumb, #Bears QB Jay Cutler expected to miss 2-3 weeks, source said. Timeline depends on how he heals over the next 3 days
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 21, 2016
Brian Hoyer took the reins against the Eagles when Jay Cutler went down. He played reasonably well in garbage time, completing nine of 12 passes for 78 yards and a respectable 91.7 passer rating. Unfortunately, those numbers are major outliers for Hoyer and he almost certainly won’t sustain them.
In his career Hoyer has started 26 games, winning 15 of them. He has only completed 58.3 percent of his passes while averaging 7.2 yards per attempt. The biggest problem is his interception rate. Hoyer throws picks on 2.6 percent of his throws and once he’s thrown one more are likely to follow, as in Houston’s 2015 playoff loss.
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Unfortunately there’s not many other options out there. Connor Shaw’s broken leg in August is looming large now and Hoyer is the only other quarterback on the roster.
Here’s a brief look at a few free agent names that are still available:
Johnny Manziel
Tarvaris Jackson
Sean Renfree
Michael Vick
T.J. Yates
Matt Flynn
Josh Freeman
Jimmy Clausen
As you can see, there’s not a whole lot of talent to go around on the market. Expect the Bears to sign somebody in the coming days, but Hoyer will get the start against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night.
While his play this past week was certainly disappointing, the Bears are about to get a crash-course in just how hard life can be without the NFL’s most infuriating quarterback.
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