Former Bears Quarterback Signed as Backup for MVP Contender

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Bengals star Joe Burrow will now have former Bears quarterback Trevor Siemian backing him up in 2023.

Trevor Siemian — who served as the Chicago Bears’ No. 2 quarterback behind Justin Fields last season — is heading to the Cincinnati Bengals to play backup to 2022 MVP contender Joe Burrow for the upcoming NFL season.

According to the NFL’s official transaction wire for May 3, the Bengals signed Siemian to their 90-man offseason roster Wednesday with the team announcing on its website that he has been signed to a one-year contract for the 2023 season. He is now slotted in as the No. 2 quarterback on their depth chart ahead of former UDFA Jake Browning.

James Palmer of NFL Network added that Siemian took a visit to Cincinnati before the start of the 2023 NFL draft last week and has a “really good relationship” with Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, who built a rapport with Siemian during his 2017 rookie season when Callahan was serving as an offensive assistant for Denver.

The Bears could have kept Siemian around for the 2023 season, but they opted to release him for roughly $1.96 million in cap savings on March 16 after signing former Carolina Panthers spot-starter P.J. Walker to be Fields’ new backup at the beginning of free agency. The 31-year-old Siemian played two games and made one start for Chicago in 2022, completing 15 of his 26 passes for 184 yards, a touchdown and an interception before suffering a season-ending injury that landed him on injured reserve.

Bears Undrafted Rookie Could Push for QB3 Role

The Bears won’t have much mystery about the pecking order for their quarterback room in 2023. Fields, so long as he is healthy, will be Chicago’s starting quarterback with Walker — who signed a two-year, $4 million contract — set to be his primary backup. There could be an interesting battle for the third quarterback spot unfolding in training camp, though, between Nathan Peterman and undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent.

Bagent earned a reputation as a Division-II gunslinger over his four years as a starter for Shepherd University, completing 400 passes for 4,580 yards, 41 touchdowns and just eight interceptions over his 15 starts in 2022. The Bears signed him as a priority free agent following the conclusion of the 2023 NFL draft, while offensive coordinator Luke Getsy spent time getting to know him at the Senior Bowl earlier this year. He isn’t the most polished passing prospect, but he seems to have more upside than Peterman.

Peterman, meanwhile, re-signed with the Bears on March 31 after spending the majority of the 2022 season as their No. 3 quarterback on the practice squad. He ended up seeing about as much action as Siemian for the Bears, playing in three games and making one start when both Fields and Siemian were injured. His performances were nothing to write home about, though, with a passing clip of just 14-of-25 (56.0 completion percentage) with 139 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The Bears could allow the competition between Bagent and Peterman to take center stage during the preseason; although, Walker could get a fair share of reps, too, while Fields is expected to only play a few series here and there like last offseason.

Justin Fields Has Proper Support for 2023 Season

The Bears caught some flak for not getting Fields enough support in the first year of the new regime in 2022, but that criticism doesn’t hold water for Fields’ forthcoming third season in the league.

The Bears added a verified No. 1 receiver in D.J. Moore via trade for the No. 1 overall pick, signed a new interior pass protector in Nate Davis and cashed in their first-round pick (No. 10 overall) on a sturdy new right tackle in Darnell Wright.  They also added Robert Tonyan Jr. to their tight end room and reinvented their running back room, letting lead back David Montgomery walk but adding D’Onta Foreman and rookie Roschon Johnson to the room alongside Khalil Herbert over the past six weeks.

Point being, the environment is right for Fields to have a breakout season in 2023 so long as he is able to live up to his end and raise the bar on his overall performance.

“You want to support your quarterback because that’s where it starts so you want to surround him with talent,” Poles said after the 2023 NFL draft. “I had to wait a little bit to do it the way I wanted to do it and the way we wanted to do it. I think we found some good opportunities to do that.”