Anyone waiting for the first installment of Jimmy Clausen: The Chicago Years will have to find some way to drown their sorrows.
Bears coach Marc Trestman met the media on Friday after his team fell to 5-8 in a 41-28 loss to the Cowboys on Thursday night and he was asked if the team would take a look at Clausen at some point in the final weeks of a lost season. Trestman indicated that the only way that would happen is if Jay Cutler suffered an injury that forced him out of the lineup.
“Jay’s our quarterback. If he’s available to play, he’s going to play,” Trestman said, via the team.
Cutler was 32-of-46 for 341 yards and two touchdowns on Thursday while struggling early before mounting a comeback effort in the second half. He also ran for a touchdown and threw an interception, which makes for an imperfect but hardly incompetent performance. Clausen has seen mop-up duty three times this year and hasn’t started since 2010, when he was often a lot closer to incompetent for the Panthers.
While it might make sense for the Bears to check out options as they play out the string, it’s hard to view Clausen as a serious one in the event the team decides to pull the plug on Cutler this offseason.