Dec. 17--A day after being limited in practice with a calf injury, Chicago Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was sidelined Thursday with an illness.
The Bears listed Jeffery on the injury report with the calf and an illness, but coach John Fox said it was the sickness that prevented the playmaker from working. That's good news as Jeffery has missed five games with hamstring and groin injuries after missing all four exhibition games with a calf injury.
Quarterback Jay Cutler didn't sound overly concerned about Jeffery's status for Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium.
"I thought he had one of his best days of practice (Wednesday), so he knows, just like the rest of us, we've got three games left and we're going to try to make the most of them," Cutler said.
Jeffery caught six passes for 107 yards and one touchdown in the 24-21 loss to the Washington Redskins. It was the fourth time he has topped 100 yards this season and his average of 99.6 yards per game ranks fourth in the NFL.
The hope is veteran Eddie Royal gets going more too. Royal returned to face the Redskins after sitting out the previous five games with a sprained knee. Although he was on the field for 53 of the 59 snaps, he was targeted only twice, catching one screen pass for 15 yards. Cutler missed Royal on the third-down play before Robbie Gould missed a 50-yard field goal with 1:40 remaining in the loss.
"I think he has looked even better this week," Cutler said. "You can definitely see his burst is back, getting in and out of cuts. He looked fast on film. If you watched him on film, he looked like he was pretty well rested. He's been down for a while. He looked good. We want to try to incorporate him a little more. He blocked extremely well for us last week so we want to try to get him some more balls, get him going."
Although first-round draft pick Kevin White can no longer practice, Cutler was upbeat about what he saw from the wide receiver in the three weeks he did participate under the rules of the physically unable to perform list. The Bears announced Tuesday that White would not be activated to the 53-man roster for the final three games.
"I think he is pretty disappointed," Cutler said. "He wanted to get a crack at it. Great guy. On and off the field wants to help in any way possible. We saw some flashes of it the last couple weeks, just his burst, his size, the strength of his hands. There is light at the end of the tunnel for him. We're excited for him."
