LAKE FOREST – Unlike the last few offseasons, there haven’t been any worries about who the Bears should get as their starting quarterback. The drafting of Justin Fields in April of 2021 took care of that question for at least a little while.

But who will serve as the backup remains a bit of a question, especially after the team’s signing on Friday.

Per his agent Mike McCartney, former Northwestern quarterback and seven-year NFL veteran Trevor Siemian has signed a two-year deal with the Bears. The team has yet to confirm the move.

Siemian spent the 2021 season with the Saints where he played in six games and started in four of them in a year of flux at the position for the franchise following Drew Brees’ retirement. He completed 57.4 percent of his passes for 1,154 yards and 11 touchdowns compared to three interceptions during the season.

Playing for four years at Northwestern under head coach Pat Fitzgerald from 2011-2014, Siemian was drafted in the seventh round by the Broncos in the 2015 NFL Draft. He only saw the field in one game during Denver’s Super Bowl championship season his rookie year but would start 24 games the next two years after the retirement of Peyton Manning.

Before the 2018 season, he was traded to the Vikings and was Kirk Cousins’ backup that year, but never took a snap.

Siemian would then sign a free-agent deal with the Jets for the 2019 season but started only one game. He was on both the Titans and Saints practice squads during the majority of the 2020 season, once again never seeing the field.

This move now puts three quarterbacks on the Bears’ roster as Siemian joins Fields along with Nick Foles, who is in the last year of his contract that will have a $10.6 million cap hit for 2022. It’s expected the team will attempt to move the veteran quarterback before the season in an attempt to free up some cap space.