Jay Cutler or Brian Hoyer? Bears QB call ‘performance-based’

Bears coach John Fox sees little reason to pick a starting quarterback until both are healthy, but he hinted Monday that it would be difficult to bench one that is being successful.

“I think it’s performance-based,” Fox said. “So anybody that’s performing well, I don’t think we’re going to be likely to change.”

That could be good news for Brian Hoyer, who completed 28 of 36 passes for 302 yards and two interceptions in the Bears’ 17-14 win against the Lions on Sunday.

Fox characterized Cutler’s right thumb sprain as day-to-day, but said he doesn’t “have a timeline” for the quarterback’s return. The Bears don’t have to update his injury status until Wednesday.

Cutler left Game 2 with the sprain, but sources told the Sun-Times it first hurt in the Bears’ Week 1 loss.

Whether Fox is being vague about the starting quarterback job because he’s unsure who to pick or simply to keep his opponent guessing is another question.

“Well I think we’ll evaluate it just like we do every position on the football team,” he said. “I think Jay has played a lot of good football. In fact in the cutups watching Detroit in last year’s two games I thought he played pretty well.

“We’ll evaluate it like everything. Right now I don’t like getting into speculation and predictions because we’ll know more on Wednesday.”