Donovan McNabb said Friday he was expecting a call from the Chicago Bears after Jay Cutler went down with a fractured thumb Nov. 20, but that call never came and the Bears lost five of their last six to miss the playoffs.

The Bears did put in a claim on Kyle Orton after he was released by the Denver Broncos, but the Kansas City Chiefs claimed Orton before he was available to the Bears.

Meanwhile, McNabb, a Chicago native who was released by the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 1, watched Caleb Hanie lose four straight games for the Bears, who then turned to Josh McCown in losing their fifth straight. The Bears closed out the season with a win over the Vikes.

"I thought the Bears would call," McNabb said on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000. "So many people continuously talked about the Mike Martz offense and things of that nature. I personally didn't care about that. If you want to win and win now, you go out and get a better quarterback and you cater your offense to his strengths, and obviously the strengths of your team.

"Obviously it didn't work out well for them. It's unfortunate. I wish things would have worked out, but it didn't. We will see what happens from now on."

Martz and the Bears parted ways shortly after the season ended, and Jerry Angelo was fired as general manager.

"That call (from the Bears) was fully never made," McNabb said. "I think also, just kind of what direction they wanted to go with. When you look at the situation they had, obviously Jay is their guy. I don't know about their backup situation, but you had a solid defense, a defense that was playing well at the time.

"Obviously going forward they have some decisions to make as far as bringing in some youth on both sides of the ball and some talent that will help them get to where they were last year."