LAKE FOREST—When the Bears drafted Kevin White the hope was that he would simplify Jay Cutler‘s life. And he still might, in much the same way big playmaking receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery have done in recent seasons. But White, the seventh overall pick out of West Virginia sustained a stress fracture in his shin during OTAs, and suffered a setback to that injury last week.The bad news: White will undergo surgery and miss at least the first six regular-season games.It gets worse: There’s a chance White won’t play at all this season. Interestingly, as recently as Friday White sounded like he was ready to get back on the field. “If it was up to me, I would be out there. I want to be practicing tomorrow, But it’s not my call. I’ve got to follow the rules. I feel I can play. But you’ve got to look at the coaches, trainers and if they say, ‘Kevin, give it another week, that’s what I have to do. Hopefully we’ll get some good news and hopefully I’ll be back out there very soon.” Unfortunately for Cutler and the Bears, “give it another week” has turned into something much longer than that. And with Marshall now on the Jets, Cutler will again lean heavily on Jeffery and hope that some combination of Eddie Royal, Marquess Wilson and Josh Bellamy can pick up the slack. Of course, there’s also tight end Martellus Bennett, and perhaps most importantly, running back Matt Forte, who’s eager to get back to “smashmouth” football. “When you run the ball, it’s more like an attack feeling,” Forte said last week. “They like smashmouth football, where you can bloody somebody’s nose and run and hit people. And then as a running back, you can get rhythm and kind of wear on defenses and wear them down, where that pass rush will be a lot less harder in the fourth quarter.” It also means that the offense isn’t reliant on Cutler heaving the ball all over the yard 40 times a game. “Anybody who has watched film from last year or anybody who is a smart coach knows that we can’t, especially being in Chicago, just throw the ball every down,” Forte continued. “We have to be balanced.” And that point becomes even more important with White now on the shelf. Even if White is able to return after 6 games, consider that he’s missed the entire Pre Season, and Rookies usually don’t contribute with no participation in Training Camp.