Unexpected Name May Have Nudged Bears To Keep Nathan Peterman

The Chicago Bears made several roster adjustments over the past week, cutting down from 90 players to 53, establishing their 16-man practice squad, and claiming two new names off waivers. There were some surprises. The decision to bring Nathan Peterman back on the main roster was one of the more perplexing. After the Bears released the veteran, it was expected they would retain him on the practice squad while rookie Tyson Bagent assumed the role of Justin Fields’ primary backup.

Part of it might be the Bears aren’t comfortable putting the #2 job in the hands of an undrafted rookie. Another is the coaching staff loves what Peterman brings to the table in the locker room and on the sideline. As it turns out, another person may have had some influence on that decision. That is Fields himself. He spoke to Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune about the situation. When asked about Bagent’s ascent, the Bears starter instead went on a brief tangent on how much he loves Peterman’s presence.

Fans often don’t realize how much the veteran has taught him about playing the position.

Fields: Yeah. Nate (Peterman) did this last week. It is good to have a guy like Nate in the room, a guy that’s been in multiple offenses, who has seen defenses for a lot of years. For the last preseason game, he did a thing called “Nate’s Nuggets,” and it was just a bunch of little notes he took throughout the week. He put them on a little sheet for us. I was reading it Thursday, Friday night and Saturday before the game. It’s good to have a guy to just remind you of little stuff you might forget when you’re just overwhelmed by so much other stuff.

Even on Tyson’s pick (against the Bills), he taught me something I didn’t even know — that flat defenders on that are taught to try to bump into the slant (receiver). They know, once they see somebody going into the flat, that the slant is coming right behind them. Especially in the zone defense — Cover-3 or something like that — when the flat’s going out, the flat defender’s taught to bump into the slant (route) and that’s why that pick happened.

Weiderer: But then that flat’s wide open.

Fields: The flat’s wide open. Exactly. So if you see that flat defender get a bunch of depth, just hit the flat (route) and then you’ll take 4 or 5 yards every time. But that was my first time ever hearing that. I didn’t know that.

Justin Fields shows again he is still in the process of learning.

Peterman has been around since 2017. He had stints in Buffalo and Las Vegas. During that time, he learned under some quality offensive minds like Brian Daboll and Jon Gruden. That education has served him well on the backup circuit. It’s probably not a coincidence Derek Carr had one of his best seasons in 2020 when Peterman became his backup. Poles said one of the jobs Bagent would have is to “be an asset to Justin.” That means doing research every week and helping to prepare Fields for gameday.

Based on what Fields said, Nathan Peterman has a particular talent for this. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he ends up coaching after he retires. The lingering question is whether the Bears still envision him as the primary backup. For all his value as a sounding board, he’s never been effective on the actual field. Peterman is 1-4 as a starter with a rough 39.4 career passer rating. Keeping him around to help Fields isn’t bad, but they’d be wise to leave the on-field backup duties to Bagent.