Cutler On Track To Start Against Browns
By Adam Hoge-
HALAS HALL (CBS) — Jay Cutler will go through a final workout Wednesday at Halas Hall and if it goes as expected, he'll be named the starting quarterback Thursday for Sunday's game against the Browns.
Bears head coach Marc Trestman said he's optimistic Cutler will be cleared to practice in full Thursday and take the No. 1 reps with the offense.
"We'll work Jay out one more time," the head coach said Wednesday. "We'll give him a good thorough workout and then we'll let you know tomorrow. If things go as planned, that's where we'll go, but we do want to work him out one more time today after coming off a few days of being off."
After a team walk-through Wednesday, Cutler will stay after with some receivers to go through what Trestman described as a "full-speed workout." It will prove to be his final test to be cleared to play and the head coach anticipates the workout "will be a good one."
"We'll work him through drops. We'll redirect him in the pocket, move him up and down, and try to get as much suddenness as we can," Trestman said. "We saw it last week, but again, he's been off for three or four days now, so we want to see him do it again and make sure that he feels good and we feel good."
Cutler practiced on a limited basis twice last week and both of those workouts went well. With the Bears playing on Monday night, Trestman did not hold a practice Wednesday as he normally would before a Sunday game and that gave the team an extra day to evaluate Cutler. Trestman prefers to have his starting quarterbacks take all the practice reps during the week, so he will name the starting quarterback Thursday.
"I just want to make sure we're giving ourselves all the time necessary. We don't have to make a decision today so we're not going to. But tomorrow we will, because we have to," Trestman said.
To make up for the lost day of practice, Cutler's workout will include concepts that will be in this week's game plan.
"It's going to be a lot of the script that we'll have tomorrow, so he'd be able to work through it at full speed and then the two days, Thursday and Friday, I would consider that to be sufficient," Trestman said.
Meanwhile, the head coach is not as optimistic about linebacker Lance Briggs returning Sunday. The fractured bone in his shoulder is still healing and Briggs has not been cleared yet. Trestman didn't completely rule the linebacker out against the Browns, but said he's still "week-to-week."
"I didn't see enough from Lance last week, all he did was run, so we'll see where the trainers and the doctors want him to be tomorrow," Trestman said. "I'm not in any way as optimistic about Lance as I would be about Jay at this time because I've seen Jay move around and do the things that he did last week."
Adam Hoge covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.
