Bears report Nathan Peterman as starter, but Trevor Siemian gets the nod anyway

It has been a rather difficult season for the Chicago Bears, who enter Week 12 of the campaign with a 3-8 record, and starting quarterback Justin Fields sidelined with a shoulder injury.

Their season took a bizarre turn prior to kickoff Sunday against the New York Jets.

With Fields injured, backup quarterback Trevor Siemian was in line to make his first start of the season for Chicago. But Siemian suffered an oblique injury in pregame warmups, forcing the Bears to announce a turn to their third-string quarterback.

Nathan Peterman.

Peterman is perhaps best known for his first NFL start, which came back in the 2017 season with the Buffalo Bills. In a game against the Los Angeles Chargers, he completed just 6 of 14 passes for 66 yards, and 5 interceptions. That was good for an NFL Passer Rating of just 17.9.

Peterman was just promoted from the Bears’ practice squad on Saturday.

But then, a shocker. Siemian would get the start after all:

When this game kicks off — with heavy rain in the forecast — it will be a battle between backup quarterbacks, as the Jets benched starting quarterback Zach Wilson in favor of White earlier this week.

In addition, the Bears have running back David Montgomery as their emergency quarterback. Given the weather, it would not be a surprise to see Montgomery get a decent share of snaps on designed running plays.

Interestingly enough, Peterman’s last NFL start came back in 2018 with the Bills. Against the Bears. In that game, a 41-9 Buffalo loss, Peterman completed 31 of 49 passes for 188 yards, no touchdowns, and 3 interceptions.

Either way, it is hard to envision Sunday’s game between these two teams, given the quarterback situations and the weather, turning into an offensive explosion.

This post was updated with the game-time announcement that Siemian would be starting after all.