Bears add QB Jordan Palmer to replace injured Matt Blanchard

With third-string quarterback Matt Blanchard breaking a knuckle in his left, non-throwing hand against the Chargers on Thursday night, the Bears went out and reached a deal with Jordan Palmer, according to multiple reports.

The Bears have been very optimistic about the development of Blanchard, a Lake Zurich native. Coach Marc Trestman, in particular, thought he was handling his West Coast offense very well.

But Josh McCown was and is locked in behind Jay Cutler as the backup. But Blanchard’s progress did have the Bears considering keeping three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.

Right now, the Bears just need a quarterback to help them play out the rest of the preseason.

“I’m not sure about the time [Blanchard] will be out,” Trestman said. “But we are sitting there with two quarterbacks going into next week and that’s something we are going to have to repair rather quickly, get a third on the roster.”

Palmer said on Twitter he was off to Chicago. As always, the deal is pending a physical.

The Bears worked out former No. 1 overall pick Jamarcus Russell, Trent Edwards and Palmer this offseason. The Bears garnered plenty of headlines for it because of Russell, but it was the team doing its due diligence on quarterbacks should they need one in case of injury.

And that injury has happened.

“I would anticipate [adding a quarterback],” Trestman said. “I will talk more with [general manager] Phil [Emery]. … But certainly that looks like the way we’ve got to go. We’ve got to get another quarterback in here. I’m sure we will look to do that as we move forward.”

Blanchard saw only four snaps in the Bears’ 33-28 victory against the San Diego Chargers. McCown, who played the entire second quarter, took over for him, seeing a team-high 37 snaps.

Blanchard’s injury definitely impacted Trestman’s play-calling later in the game. He called more runs to protect McCown.

“Once Matt went down, we really limited what we were going to do offensively,” Trestman said. “We were going to run the football, try to use as much clock as we could, try to keep Josh as safe as we could through the second half and really get out of the game without losing [another] quarterback.”