The final minutes of preseason games don’t tend to be populated by players who project to major roles in the coming season, but that doesn’t mean that injuries during that part of the game won’t wind up impacting the team.
A perfect example of that came on Thursday night when Bears third-string quarterback Matt Blanchard fractured the knuckle on his left hand. It’s not Blanchard’s throwing hand, but he’s expected to miss some time and that means that a currently unemployed quarterback could be getting a call from the Bears in the near future.
“I’m not sure about the time that he’ll be out, but we’re sitting here with two quarterbacks going into next week,” Bears coach Marc Trestman said, via Michael C. Wright of ESPNChicago.com. “Certainly that’s something that we’re gonna have to repair fairly quickly to get a third quarterback on the roster. We’ve got to get another quarterback in here, and I’m sure we’ll look to do that as we move forward.”
The Bears worked out JaMarcus Russell, Jordan Palmer and Trent Edwards during the offseason and none have landed on rosters, so they could bring one of them back. As a former first overall pick who made a mess of things during his time with the Raiders, Russell’s return to the NFL would generate the most attention although no one the Bears add now will see the field in the regular season unless things take a seriously wrong turn on the field.