Jay Cutler is listed as doubtful for the Bears' Monday night game in Dallas, but he's not giving up hope of playing through an injury that a surgeon likened to Tommy John.

As CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported Thursday, Cutler is lobbying the Bears coaching staff to allow him to play through the sprained thumb he suffered at some point earlier this season. La Canfora added, however, that a situation that involves Cutler playing should still be seen as a stretch.

La Canfora reported that on Thursday. The following day, the Bears listed him as "doubtful" on the injury report, which makes sense given that his injury sounds severe. Earlier this week, The Chicago Sun-Times spoke with a surgeon, who told them that his injury is basically the Tommy John of quarterback injuries.

"This is the 'Tommy John' of the football quarterback, basically," said John Fernandez, a hand, wrist and elbow orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center.

"You do not want this injury," Fernandez said. "For one, it puts you out. Two, it's very unpredictable in terms of how it's going to recover."

That's important for a few reasons. The first is that the Bears might be stuck with Brian Hoyer for the foreseeable future. That's not good for the Bears, who are 5-10 in games Cutler doesn't start, according to Scout.com.

The second reason is that this could end Cutler's career in Chicago, if the injury is serious enough to knock him out for more than just a few games. The Bears can cut ties with him with very few financial consequences following the season, and if he doesn't play much this year the they'll most likely earn a high enough draft position to allow them to draft their future quarterback.

The third reason is that this invalidates any opinion that attacks Cutler's toughness. As La Canfora reported, Cutler is trying to push through the injury. Furthermore, there's probably a reason why Cutler checked himself out of the game on Monday night after throwing a horrible interception: It's sort of hard to throw a football with that injury.

"Unless he's completely pain-free and that ligament is super-stiff, it's going to significantly decrease his ability to grip with strength," Fernandez told the Sun-Times. "So it's going to affect his ability to throw, throw accurately, throw with velocity."

And that matches what Cutler said following the game, when he said he had difficulty gripping the ball.

Of course, none of this bodes well for the Bears, who are dealing with injuries to over half of their starters. At 0-2, the Bears don't appear to be close to turning around their season. If anything, the downslope appears to be only just beginning.