Brian Hoyer's back-to-back-to-back 300-yard games put him in the driver seat to keep the Chicago Bears' quarterback gig even when Jay Cutler returns healthy.
The Cutler predicament has become the talking point around Chicago, even as the team falls further into the depths of a lost season.
Cutler remains out with a right thumb injury, suffered in Week 2. Since then NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport has reported multiple times that the job is Hoyer's to keep if he plays well. The three 300-yard performances from Hoyer already equaled the number Cutler put up in 15 games last year -- without the boneheaded mistakes.
Yet, coach John Fox continues to shrug at questions about his quarterback's future. On Monday, Fox wasn't ready to discuss when Cutler might be healthy enough to play, which would force a public decision regarding the position.
"It's like (asking) what the weather is going to be tomorrow," Fox said, via the Chicago Tribune. "I don't know. We just take it a day at a time."
Sure, coach, you can't predict things, but surely you have a plan once Cutler is healthy. Why are you so loathe to share with us your plan? Is it because you don't want to lose Cutler mentally?
"Well, because we don't have a plan," Fox responded. "Right now we've got two guys healthy in Matt Barkley and Brian Hoyer. Those are our quarterbacks. All our focus is there."
Fox likely didn't mean he has no plan at all, but the poor word choice underscores the depressing, rudderless nature of this Bears squad.
The defense is battered and beleaguered. The offense is an inconsistent amalgamation of meandering talents.
Fox's reluctance to publicly bench Cutler for Hoyer seems par for the course for a frustrated fan base wondering how the same coach deemed Jordan Howard the third-best running back on the roster to open the season.
