The Bears went to their backup quarterback twice this season, and both times it immediately rendered the game pointless.
First there was the fiasco against the Jets in which they acted as though starting Justin Fields was a legitimate possibility all the way until the morning of the game, then Trevor Siemian strained an oblique muscle in warmups and took himself out of consideration. That paved the way for practice-squad callup Nathan Peterman to make his first start since 2018.
Peterman’s thrill lasted maybe an hour before Siemian essentially decided he needed to tough it out and play anyway.
The result was a 31-10 Jets blowout.
Peterman finally will get that opportunity Sunday when the Bears face the Vikings to close the season. They ruled out Fields with a hip injury, though he played through it last week against the Lions, and Tim Boyle will be the backup.
It’s such a bad scenario for the Bears that it raised the question of whether they were intent on losing. Given that they could jump to the No. 1 pick with a loss and a Texans win over the Colts, perhaps it’s best for them to roll with Peterman and Boyle.
But one day, hopefully next season, these games will matter. And the Bears’ backup plan for Fields can’t ever look like this again.
That’s important for any team, but particularly one that relies so heavily on Fields as a runner. He missed four starts with two different injuries as a rookie, then two more this season with a separated shoulder and this hip strain.
But what happens when he misses a couple games next season with a potential playoff berth on the line? Imagine depending on Siemian or Peterman in that situation.
The other frustrating aspect of this is that there’s no upside with Siemian (31) or Peterman (28). The Bears are Siemian’s sixth team and Peterman’s third. It’s clear what the ceiling is for both of them, and it’s quite low.
If the Bears had a developmental quarterback on the roster, perhaps a late-round draft pick, their game against the Vikings would be moderately intriguing because of curiosity to see what they have.
The Ravens offer a smart alternative to what the Bears are doing. Behind Lamar Jackson, the only quarterback on par with Fields as a runner, they’re trying to develop Tyler Huntley and Anthony Brown.
Neither has proven amazing, but they check two key boxes in big-picture strategy: they’re young and they play a similar style as Jackson. That means the Ravens don’t have to alter their offense when Huntley or Brown steps in, and if either of them turned into a starting-caliber quarterback, the team would have a valuable trade asset.
Huntley kept the Ravens afloat by going 2-2 while Jackson was out with a knee injury and will start their finale against the Bengals on Sunday. He and Brown were undrafted finds out of Utah and Oregon, respectively.
It’s an important enough position that the Bears would be wise to spend as high as a fourth-round pick on it. It’s a win-win if they have a quality backup with a similar skillset and develop him into a player they can flip for a higher draft pick. The Patriots did it multiple times when they had Tom Brady.
In a season with nothing at stake in the standings, it didn’t matter that the Bears had no one viable behind Fields. And for this game, Peterman is perfectly suited to steer them to the outcome they really need. But it won’t always be like this, and the Bears need a sturdier plan starting next season.
