Bears RB Matt Forte's ankle injury appears to be less serious than was originally feared. (AP)

Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte didn't run at Monday's practice, but he did run afterward as he tried to get off the practice field before the media reached him.

Forte jogged fairly quickly, confirming what coach Lovie Smith said after practice -- the ankle sprain isn't as serious as some reports indicated after the team's 23-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

"He doesn't have a high-ankle sprain," Smith said. 

Forte did not wear a cast of any kind while watching practice.

"He has an ankle sprain," Smith said. "As far as when he'll be back, I don't know. I was hoping he would look about the way he did today. He looked pretty good today. We're not ruling him out of anything just yet."

The Bears host the Rams on Sunday at Soldier Field. Smith wasn't about to speculate on Forte's availability for that game.

"He has a long way to go," Smith said. "I don't want the [media] to start thinking he'll be out there practicing tomorrow. He's not. But we're making progress."

Jay fan: Apparently Jay Cutler's behavior against Green Bay did nothing to damage his standing in the eyes of Smith.

"It’s pretty simple: I like Jay Cutler and everything that he is," Smith said. "And I am not trying to trade any of our players.

"The week before, you didn’t hear an awful lot of this stuff. We were talking about how good we were and how we were playing. So, we’ll get back to that where the focus is on the play on the football field. That’s what I was disappointed in: Our play. The way we as coaches prepared our guys and the way we played during that game. But we’ll correct that."

30-30: Cornerback Charles Tillman has joined the 30-30 club. He has 30 interceptions and 30 forced fumbles, and he got his last forced fumble without playing another game. Bears media officials found he had a forced fumble as a special teams player in his rookie season of 2003 that had not been counted in his totals. They added it to the 29th forced fumble he caused against Green Bay.

Tillman leads all defensive backs in fumbles caused since joining the league.

Urlacher backer: Smith wasn't jumping on the growing pile of Brian Urlacher critics who have said he isn't the same player after his knee surgery. "Just keep in mind where he’s come, the first game he got about 30 reps," Smith said. "Just look at all the players that went through the preseason, so we didn’t expect him to be (in) Hall-of-Fame form right away. But he did some good things in that game also, but we all need to take another step this week."

TE shuffle: TE Gabe Miller, a 2011 fifth-round draft choice by Kansas City, signed with the Bears practice squad. The 6-foot-3, 257-pounder replaced Dedrick Epps, who had been signed off the Bears practice squad to the Jets active roster.

Follow Bears reporter Gene Chamberlain on Twitter @CBSBears.