Bears will play Justin Fields, other starters for 'select snaps' in preseason finale, won't say who's No. 2 QB

There's a competition between three candidates to be Fields' backup

By Jared Dubin

Aug 25, 2023 at 5:14 pm ET • 1 min read

USATSI

The Chicago Bears sat numerous starters in the second week of the preseason, but it looks like they'll be handling things differently for their final tuneup game. Head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters that Justin Fields and several other starters will play "select snaps" against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday afternoon, according to NBC Sports Chicago.

While that means we'll see some (but maybe not a lot) of Fields, Eberflus was less forthcoming about who will be the backup behind his starting quarterback: former Panthers backup and starter P.J. Walker, Fields' 2022 backup Nathan Peterman, or undrafted rookie free agent Tyson Bagent.

"I'm not going to answer that," Eberflus said. "That's still a competition though, as we've said all along, and we're open to that. That's exciting. And that was created. It wasn't like we created it -- when I say we, the coaching staff. That was created by pure competition. Like I said, if you keep an open mind and you let things play out, then good things will happen. A lot of times I've seen that coaches predetermine things a lot of times and we just based it on performances and we're going to continue to do that and let the competition play itself out."

Through the team's first two preseason contests, Walker completed 5 of 12 passes for 25 yards and an interception, while Peterman was 14 of 24 for 173 yards and a touchdown and Bagent went 13 of 15 for 113 yards. Each of the three quarterbacks was sacked twice, while Peterman ran once for 22 yards and Bagent carried twice for two yards and a score.

Chicago doesn't have significant financial resources tied up in any of the three players, with Walker's guarantee of just over $1 million representing the largest sum among them. If one of the other two players simply beat him out for the job, it won't cost the Bears all that much to cut ties and make the move.