Matt Blanchard can still throw, run and go through some workouts. But he can’t take a snap. The broken knuckle in his left (non-throwing) hand prevents that. So the second-year quarterback from Lake Zurich High School said he will do what he can to “be the best teammate possible.”
“Getting injured at all, it’s always frustrating,” Blanchard said Monday at Halas Hall. “You just have to handle it with as much poise as possible. You have to keep your head up and move forward.”
Blanchard said there’s no timetable for his return. He’s still talking to and getting examined by doctors and trainers. Blanchard was wearing a soft cast on his left hand.
Blanchard, though, did detail how he was injured against the San Diego Chargers on Thursday.
“It was on third down [and] we were trying to run a little screen, and I should’ve just dumped it away but I tried to make something happen,” said Blanchard, who took only three snaps against the Chargers. “[I] got my hand kind of caught in his helmet, kind of pinched and got a little spiral (fracture), twisted my finger a little bit.”
The most frustrating part for Blanchard is that Bears are seriously considering keeping three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster and that he was finding success in coach Marc Trestman’s West Coast scheme.
Trestman indicated that he has a preference for keeping three quarterbacks on the roster. Jordan Palmer and Trent Edwards, who were signed over the weekend, both practiced on Monday.
“You’re always thinking three,” Trestman said. “To have somebody in the room because if somebody does go down, that person’s been in the room and he’s been in the meetings and he’s connected with the staff and with the other quarterbacks. So the thought would be to have three but the roster may dictate that we have to go in another direction and go only with two and we’ll see what happens as we move to cutdown dates.”
The Bears definitely were high on Blanchard.
“I feel good about my progress,” Blanchard said. “I feel good about moving forward, and a lot of the stuff’s out of my hands at this point. I just have to help the new quarterbacks coming in to get them ready for Oakland and get them ready for the last preseason game and be the best teammate possible.”
