The Chicago Bears had to play part of Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles without quarterback Jay Cutler, but it appears that was just a preview of events to come.
In his press conference on Tuesday, Bears head coach John Fox revealed the Cutler suffered a sprained thumb during the game against the Eagles, but he did say that the injury will not require surgery.
Another very important Bears player did not get so lucky. Fox also revealed that linebacker Danny Trevathan, the team's big free agent acquisition during the offseason, will undergo surgery to repair a thumb injury and will miss a significant amount of time.
Fox did say that Trevathan's injury will not be season-ending, but did not say when exactly he would be back in the fold.
Earlier on Tuesday, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said that the Bears were preparing to be without Cutler for a "lengthy period":
Cutler suffered at least an aggravation of that thumb injury during Monday’s game, but apparently it wasn’t new. According to Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times, Cutler actually suffered a thumb injury in the Bears’ Week 1 loss to the Houston Texans, but practiced through the injury all week long and played the first two and a half quarters of Monday’s game with the injury.
According to Cutler, he aggravated the injury on Monday when he was sacked by Eagles defensive lineman Destiny Vaeao. That sack caused Cutler to lose a fumble, and he only made two more throws, a bad incompletion and an interception, before he was removed from the game in the third quarter.
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If Cutler is out for a significant period of time, the Bears will likely start Brian Hoyer in his place, at least in the short-term, but it’s unclear what their plans would be for a longer-term solution if one is necessary.