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Nathan Peterman

Bears Make WR Chase Claypool A Healthy Scratch In Week 4, Actively Trying To Trade Him

October 1st, 2023 at 6:00pm CST by Rory Parks

6:00pm: There are conflicting reports coming out of Chicago this afternoon following the team’s crushing loss to the previously 0-3 Broncos. According to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, head coach Matt Eberflus told the media that the decision for Claypool not to attend “today’s game after being made inactive was the wide receiver’s choice,” insinuating that the Bears didn’t instruct the beleaguered player to stay away.

Another source, Adam Jahns of The Athletic, provided an updated report later in the afternoon that a team spokesperson clarified the opposite claim, explaining that the Bears did, in fact, ask Claypool to stay home, away from the game, today.

There is clearly an extreme amount of tension building between the two parties, creating a schism that is starting to seem impossible to span. Eberflus claimed that he anticipates seeing Claypool back in the building tomorrow, but it’s unclear if the two sides will be able to come to a working agreement.

11:45am: Poles is actively trying to trade Claypool, as NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports. Poles is calling teams he believes may be in the market for a receiver and is looking for a fifth- or sixth-round pick in return.

11:06am: The Bears have made wide receiver Chase Claypool a healthy scratch for their Week 4 game against the Broncos (Ian Rapoport of NFL.com first reported the team’s plan to make Claypool inactive). Fellow wideout Equanimeous St. Brown, on the heels of a strong week of practice, will be active for the first time in 2023.

This represents another low in a disappointing Chicago tenure for Claypool. The former second-round pick of the Steelers, who was a focal point of Pittsburgh’s offense over the 2020-21 campaigns, was shipped to the Bears in advance of last year’s trade deadline in exchange for what turned out to be the No. 32 overall pick of the 2023 draft (which the Steelers used to selected Joey Porter Jr.).

Bears GM Ryan Poles added Claypool in an effort to surround quarterback Justin Fields with more receiving talent, an effort that continued with this offseason’s acquisition of D.J. Moore. However, in the 10 games that Claypool has played for Chicago, he has amassed just 18 catches for 191 yards and one touchdown.

As Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times details, Claypool was criticized by his coaches and teammates for not showing enough effort in the Bears’ 2023 regular season opener against the Packers. Prior to the club’s Week 2 game versus the Bucs, Poles said that he expected Claypool to make changes.

“And if he doesn’t,” Poles said, “then we’ll have to figure out what we’re going to do after that.”

While Claypool exhibited better effort in that matchup with Tampa Bay, catching three balls for 36 yards and a score, he caught just one pass for 15 yards in the Bears’ Week 3 drubbing at the hands of the Chiefs despite playing in 86% of the team’s offensive snaps. To be fair, the Kansas City loss was nightmarish for the entire team, but Claypool has obviously fallen out of the good graces of his coaching staff.

Claypool is likewise not too fond of the staff at the moment. When asked this past week if he believed he was being put in the best position to succeed, the Notre Dame product paused for seven seconds before saying, “no.”

“Obviously, there’s other places,” Claypool added. “You can say, ‘Oh, I want to be on the best offense with the highest passing yards,’ but that doesn’t happen in football. You just have to make do with what you’ve got.”

As Finley notes, it is unclear whether Claypool knew that he was being benched when he made those comments, or if the comments contributed to his benching. Either way, it is not a good look for a contract-year player to be scratched by a team that is desperate for offensive production. It is fair to wonder if the Bears will seek to move Claypool at this year’s deadline, though they will obviously not come close to recouping their own investment in him if they do put him on the block.

In related news, the Bears are elevating Tyson Bagent to the QB2 role behind Fields, according to Rapoport. Bagent, an undrafted free agent out of D-II Shepherd University, had an impressive summer and was rumored to be in the running for the backup job when the season got underway. While Chicago installed veteran Nathan Peterman as Fields’ clipboard holder for the first few weeks of the campaign, Bagent has done enough to merit a promotion.

Rapoport made it clear that the move does not impact Fields’ standing with the team.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/21/23

September 21st, 2023 at 4:42pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Thursday’s minor moves:

Chicago Bears

Houston Texans

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

San Francisco 49ers

The Bears released Peterman on Wednesday, but Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times notes the team was planning to use the roster spot to poach a player off a another team’s practice squad. Chicago’s effort did not produce a signing, however, leaving Peterman’s spot vacant. When a team makes an effort to sign a player off another club’s P-squad, the team can promote the player to its 53-man roster to keep him from being poached. The seventh-year QB, who is in his second season with the Bears, again give the team three active-roster QBs — along with Justin Fields and rookie Tyson Bagent.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/20/23

September 20th, 2023 at 4:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Wednesday’s minor moves:

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Steelers placing Anthony McFarland on IR left them with two active-roster running backs. Igwebuike will step in as Pittsburgh’s third-stringer behind Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. Because the Steelers signed Igwebuike off another team’s practice squad, they must keep him on their active roster for at least three weeks.

Coming back to the Saints after spending the offseason and training camp with the Broncos, Jones scored two touchdowns in New Orleans’ Monday-night win over Carolina. But the Saints had used a gameday elevation transaction to bump the veteran backup to the active roster. Wednesday’s move makes Jones an official part of the Saints’ 53-man unit.

Knight caught on with the Lions’ practice squad shortly after the Jets waived him. With David Montgomery likely to miss time, Knight will join Jahmyr Gibbs and Craig Reynolds as the backs on Detroit’s 53-man roster. A 2022 UDFA, Knight saw time following Breece Hall‘s ACL tear last season but could not stick on the Jets’ roster after the AFC East team’s Dalvin Cook addition.

Latest On Bears’ Backup QB Situation

September 8th, 2023 at 2:23pm CST by Adam La Rose

SEPTEMBER 8: As expected, Eberflus said on Friday that it will indeed be Peterman backing up Fields when the Bears host the Packers on Sunday. The veteran will thus be turned to if anything should happen to Chicago’s starter during the game. Bagent will be designated the emergency third quarterback, meaning he will be in uniform without counting as part of the team’s gameday lineup. Only injuries to Fields and Peterman would allow the rookie to enter the game, though, and a return from either would obligate Bagent to head back to the sidelines.

SEPTEMBER 3: The Bears only had two quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster after deciding to release both P.J. Walker and Nathan Peterman. The decision to cut the latter proved to be a paper transaction, though, and he is again on the active roster.

As a result, questions have been raised about how the backup spot will shake out behind Justin Fields. The QB2 role was up for grabs during training camp and the preseason, and the play of undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent earned him at least a roster spot to start the year. He may not see backup duties right away, however.

“We have not decided that,” head coach Matt Eberflus said, via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, when asked about who will dress behind Fields in Week 1. “We’re sure glad to have [Peterman] back. He’s really good for that room. Him and Justin learned the offense together, so to speak, so they’re speaking the same language. So they understand it really well. It’s good to have him in the room.”

Peterman’s inclusion on the active roster – as opposed to the practice squad – could suggest he is in line to serve as the backup at least early in the season. Biggs predicts that the 29-year-old will start the campaign in the No. 2 role, which would relegate Bagent to emergency QB duties. Teams are allowed to carry three signal-callers on the roster while still only dressing two on gamedays. Injuries to the starter and backup are required for the third-stringer to be allowed to enter the game, however.

As Biggs notes, Bagent could move himself past Peterman while continuing to impress in practice during the season while the more experienced option works as a fill-in option. Things could change quickly from the presumed depth chart in short order, and Eberflus is not (at least publicly) prepared to declare how the team will proceed at the position to start the year.

“We wanted to secure him in that situation,” he said of Peterman’s release and re-signing. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future with who’s going to be up for the game, who’s going to be the backup. We’ll decide that as we go.”

Bears Set Initial Roster, Waive DE Trevis Gipson

August 29th, 2023 at 4:24pm CST by Ben Levine

The Bears have been slowly trimming down their squad over the past few days, and the front office has now officially landed on their initial roster. The Bears announced the following moves, some of which were previously reported:

Placed on IR:

Released:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

The moves actually reduce Chicago’s roster to 52 players, so additions are certainly coming.

Trevis Gipson is a bit of a surprise cut after the former fifth-round pick got into 33 games (19 starts) for the Bears over the past two years. The defensive lineman showed some pass-rushing prowess during his rookie season, compiling seven sacks, seven tackles for loss, and seven QB hits. His numbers took a bit of a step back in 2022, with the Tulsa product finishing with only three sacks. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler (via Twitter), the Bears worked on a trade for Gipson and had “teams involved” in the bidding but couldn’t come to terms before today’s roster deadline.

Trestan Ebner was another Bears draft pick that got into 17 games last season. The 2022 sixth-round pick ended up getting 26 touches on offense, collecting 62 yards from scrimmage while coughing up two fumbles. Ebner also returned 10 kickoffs for Chicago last season. The running back has been in concussion protocol since the early parts of the preseason, and there’s a chance he reverts to the Bears’ injured reserve if he goes unclaimed.

Bears To Release QB Nathan Peterman

August 29th, 2023 at 12:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Bears have now jettisoned both the veteran quarterbacks behind Justin Fields on their depth chart. Following P.J. Walker‘s release, Chicago will cut Nathan Peterman, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.

This may not be the end of the road for the Bears and Peterman. They would like to bring him back on a practice squad deal, per Pelissero. A seventh-year veteran who has settled into a reserve role since a rough stretch of early-career game cameos, Peterman spent last season with the Bears.

More interestingly, the Bears now have only rookie UDFA Tyson Bagent behind Fields on their active roster. With Walker and Peterman off the 53-man roster, Bagent has been the Bears’ top backup option during training camp and the preseason, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin adds. It would still qualify as unusual to give this job to a rookie UDFA out of a Division II program (Shepherd), but unless the Bears add another arm on the waiver wire or in free agency between now and Week 1, Bagent is on track to be a surprising QB2.

Peterman found himself in the same transaction last year. The Bears were a bit deeper at quarterback in 2022, rostering Trevor Siemian as well. But they prioritized Peterman via a P-squad deal. This arrangement led to Peterman starting a rather important game — for draft purposes — last season. The ex-Bills draftee completed 11 of 19 passes for 114 yards in a Week 18 loss to the Vikings — a defeat that ended up securing Chicago the No. 1 overall pick. Betting on Fields, the Ryan Poles regime traded the pick to the Panthers for a package that will help the team bolster its roster around Fields.

That game marked Peterman’s first start since his disastrous Buffalo work. Despite that historically bad four-start sample in Buffalo, Peterman has managed to remain a relatively coveted commodity. He spent nearly four years as a Raiders backup, covering almost all of Jon Gruden’s second stay with the team, and has another opportunity awaiting ahead of his age-29 season.

Bears Conducting Backup Quarterback Competition?

August 20th, 2023 at 1:30pm CST by Adam La Rose

The top spot on the Bears’ quarterback depth chart, as confirmed by their handling of the 2023 offseason, belongs to Justin Fields. Despite the identity of his backup appearing clear before training camp and the preseason began, that may not be the case.

Chicago inked P.J. Walker to a two-year deal including $2MM guaranteed in free agency. That move seemed to place the 28-year-old in prime position to secure the QB2 role behind Fields, but camp practices and exhibition contests have not seen Walker perform well enough to cement his status with the team. That has opened the door to a competition for the job.

“I would just say everything is open right now, and it’s not just that position, it’s every position,” head coach Matt Eberflus said when asked about Walker and the quarterback spot. “If the guy is in a competition, everybody can look at the roster and see who’s in a competition. Those are all going to be open. I think if you close your mind off to that, you might be missing on something” (Twitter links via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune).

While Walker has underperformed so far during the summer, undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent has drawn attention for his play when given an opportunity. The latter completed nine of 10 passes for 76 scoreless passing yards during last night’s preseason game against the Colts, adding a rushing touchdown. That could point to a degree of upside compared to Walker, who started seven games in Carolina (including five in 2022) and struggled to put up noteworthy numbers across his three-year Panthers tenure.

Nathan Peterman is also in the fold for the Bears, meaning he could be a QB2 candidate depending on how the remainder of August plays out. Chicago made a low-cost investment in Peterman for the second straight year this offseason, after the former Bills draftee made three appearances and one start in 2022. The Bears’ final preseason contest will no doubt go a long way in determining the final pecking order under center. As things currently stand, though, Walker’s grip on the backup spot does not appear to be a firm one.

Bears To Re-Sign QB Nathan Peterman

March 30th, 2023 at 4:32pm CST by Adam La Rose

Each of the top two members of Chicago’s quarterback depth chart from last season will be in place for 2023. The Bears are re-signing backup QB Nathan Peterman, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network (Twitter link).

The former Bills fifth-rounder had an unflattering start to his career in Buffalo, but he landed a backup role with the Raiders starting in 2019. He ended up making only two appearances with his second team across his time with them, however, and finished his tenure there on the team’s practice squad.

As a free agent, the 28-year-old moved on for the second time in his career last offseason. Peterman inked a one-year contract with the Bears, giving the team a veteran presence behind starter Justin Fields. The latter took a step forward (at least in terms of rushing production) in 2022, to the point where general manager Ryan Poles repeatedly stated the team’s intention of keeping him as their starting signal-caller. That was confirmed when the Bears traded the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft to the Panthers earlier this month.

Fields operated as the full-time starter when healthy last season, but Peterman was able to make one start amidst his three total appearances. His numbers in that brief spell (56% completion percentage, 68.6 passer rating and 1:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio) certainly weren’t enough to convince the Bears – or any other team – that anything other than a QB2 role would be in store for Peterman in 2023 and beyond.

With this new deal, he will be able to continue his stay in the Windy City as a familiar face in the Bears’ quarterbacks room. Fellow veteran Tim Boyle, who was brought in late during the 2022 season as insurance and made one appearance in Chicago, remains unsigned. He will likely be headed elsewhere in the near future, with the Bears set under center for 2023.

Justin Fields To Start In Week 13

December 3rd, 2022 at 5:10pm CST by Adam La Rose

DECEMBER 3: Getting Fields back is crucial for the Bears this week as their backup quarterback, Siemian is being placed on IR. To fulfill the backup duties, Chicago has signed the practice squad quarterback, Peterman, to the active roster, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

DECEMBER 2: Justin Fields has made steady progress since suffering a dislocated shoulder, and he will ultimately miss just one game as a result of it. The Bears quarterback is not on the team’s Week 13 injury report, meaning he is in line to start on Sunday.

Fields was carted off the field during Chicago’s Week 11 loss to the Falcons. The injury took away his opportunity to record three consecutive 100-yard rushing games, but more importantly, also left his short- and intermediate-term availability in question. After further testing, it became clear that his return to game action would be dependent on pain management.

The 2021 first-rounder expressed optimism in being able to suit up for Week 12, but was held out. He received first-team reps in practice this week, though, and was listed as a full participant for the past two days. As a result, head coach Matt Eberflus said Fields is “100%” with respect to his health status leading into the upcoming contest against the Packers.

“Right now he feels, and we feel, that the mobility and strength is there for him to protect himself,” Eberflus added, via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, on Twitter, “and he feels like he’s a hundred percent, ready to go.” 

That will allow the Ohio State alum to pick up where he left off in what has become an encouraging second year in the NFL. Fields has taken an incremental step forward as a passer in 2022, operating within a very run-heavy scheme and with a pass-catching corps which will no longer include No. 1 wideout Darnell Mooney for the rest of the season. On the ground, though, Fields has become the team’s offensive focal point with a league-leading 6.8 yards per carry and seven rushing touchdowns.

Even as Fields is set to return, however, the Bears will be shorthanded under center moving forward. Veteran backup Trevor Siemian – who filled in for Fields last week – suffered an oblique injury during warmups. While he was able to play through it during Chicago’s loss to the Jets, the 30-year-old will now undergo season-ending surgery, per an announcement from Eberflus. That will leave Fields and Nathan Peterman available as signal-callers for the remainder of the season.

The 3-9 Bears are not in the thick of the NFC playoff race, but they will have the opportunity to evaluate Fields both in terms of his recovery, and his continued career ascension as the rebuilding squad eyes improvements in the offseason.

Bears To Start QB Trevor Siemian In Week 12

November 27th, 2022 at 12:04pm CST by Ben Levine

NOVEMBER 27, 12:04pm: Scratch that. Siemian is under center for the Bears, with Peterman operating as the backup.

NOVEMBER 27, 11:29am: Fields is indeed inactive for Sunday’s contest against the Jets, and in even worse news for the Bears, Siemian injured his oblique during pregame warmups (Twitter link via Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network). Therefore, Peterman will be making his first start since Week 9 of the 2018 season, while Siemian will serve as his backup.

As Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com tweets, RB David Montgomery is Chicago’s emergency signal-caller.

NOVEMBER 26: It sounds like the Bears are preparing for tomorrow’s game as if they won’t have Justin Fields under center. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reports (via Twitter) that Chicago has promoted quarterback Nathan Peterman from the practice squad.

Fields has been nursing a shoulder injury that resulted in him being listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game against the Jets. The QB told reporters that he’s dealing with a separated shoulder with partially torn ligaments, and while he acknowledged that he’s feeling better every day, he was still limited on Thursday and Friday before earning his official questionable designation.

“I think we’re going to let it go up to the game,” coach Matt Eberflus said (via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin). “We’ll try to do that. We think that’s where it is, and we’ll see where he is at game time and see how he feels.”

If Fields doesn’t play, veteran Trevor Siemian will likely earn his first start of the season. The Bears had been rolling with only two quarterbacks on their active roster prior to today’s transaction. Garafolo notes that the Bears will likely take their starting QB decision down to game time.

As for Peterman, the veteran QB has spent the majority of the 2022 season on Chicago’s practice squad. Following a one-plus-year stint with the Bills to start his career, Peterman spent the better part of the past four seasons with the Raiders. He only got into a pair of games during his time with the organization, completing three of his five pass attempts.

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