Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has a sprained thumb on his throwing hand but is not expected to need surgery, coach John Fox said Tuesday.
“To my knowledge, right now, no [he will not need surgery],” Fox said. “But to eliminate it down the road, I’m not a doctor, so I can’t tell you that. But it doesn’t appear like that at this point.”
Fox said the veteran quarterback is considered day to day, but stopped short of declaring Cutler out for Sunday night’s road game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Cutler, 33, completed 12 of 17 pass attempts for 157 yards and one interception. He also lost a fumble.
An 11-year veteran, Cutler has missed 15 games because of injuries since 2010. He broke his right thumb in a Nov. 2011 game against the San Diego Chargers while trying to make a tackle following an interception. The injury caused him to miss the rest of the season.
“Jimmy played a lot of plays yesterday, which was good,” Pete Carroll said. “Not quite as many targets that I know what everybody would like to see, but he did a really good job when the ball was thrown to him. He had some nice plays, blocking, he had a lot of play time. He’s really in the groove to go, and that was significant that he was able to do that. That’s a good deal for us.”
Together, Allen and Woodhead accounted for about one-third of San Diego’s offensive output in 2015.
“I will promise you one thing — Danny will be back stronger than ever,” Chargers coach Mike McCoy said about Woodhead, who is in the final year of his contract. “And that is why he has been so successful in this business. He always has that chip on his shoulder, comes to work every day and treats it like his last day. He is a great example of what it means to be a pro.”
With those two prolific playmakers out, the Chargers will have to count on the person who has not missed a start in more than a decade: quarterback Philip Rivers.