The injuries have been piling up for the Bears in recent weeks and there were so many aching bodies on Wednesday that coach Lovie Smith decided the team would be better served by scaling down their practice time to a walkthrough instead of a normal full practice.
Smith was careful to point out that it didn’t mean the team wasn’t working on Wednesday, but admitted the situation was less than ideal. Quarterback Jay Cutler, one of the injured Bears, had a pretty positive take on Smith’s decision.
“I think it’s a smart decision,” Cutler said, via ESPNChicago.com. “A lot of guys are banged up. You get to this point in the season and you hope guys can be smart enough to take a mental day and process the information and still be prepared on Sunday.”
The Bears still had to release a hypothetical participation report for their practice and it said Cutler would not have practiced on Wednesday as a result of the neck injury he suffered in last Sunday’s loss to the Vikings. Cutler has downplayed concerns that he won’t be able to play in Week 15, but they’ll rise if he isn’t able to go when the Bears practice for real on Thursday.