Matt Barkley Has Earned Chance to Start for Chicago Bears in 2017

It’s been a miserable season for the Chicago Bears in 2016.

Not Cleveland miserable, mind you, but a 3-11 season makes the Chicago winter feel even darker and more brutal.

However, scattered among the dark clouds have been bright spots. Rookie running back Jordan Howard eclipsed 1,000 yards on the season in Sunday’s loss. And while it didn’t end in a victory over the hated Green Bay Packers, quarterback Matt Barkley once again kept the team in the game until the end.

In fact, Barkley’s play over the last month has raised a possibility over that would have been called lunacy not too long ago—actually, a pair of possibilities.

The Bears’ 2017 starter under center may already be on their roster, and that player is not Jay Cutler.

Cue cheers from Chicago fans.

OK, and maybe a few groans. Let’s be honest: No one is going to confuse Barkley with Aaron Rodgers anytime soon. The 26-year-old former USC star doesn’t have a plus arm and turned the ball over four times against Green Bay, even if one interception was on a Hail Mary and deserves an asterisk.

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Matt Barkley is never going to be a top-five quarterback, or even a top-10 quarterback.

But were it not for Barkley’s 362 passing yards against the Packers, the Bears would have been trounced by Green Bay. He completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and tossed for a pair of touchdowns. Just as he did against the Detroit Lions and Tennessee Titans, Barkley kept the Bears in it against a more talented team.

Center Cody Whitehair lauded Barkley’s play, per ESPN’s Jeff Dickerson:

He just kept his poise out there. He really didn’t panic or anything. He just sat back in the pocket and did what he did. Matt’s a great player, and it doesn’t surprise us. We never got the feeling [after the interceptions] that he was down. He never lost confidence in himself. He just kept doing what he was doing.

Barkley hasn’t been phenomenal, but he also hasn’t been horrifying. He hasn’t done any worse for the Bears than Cutler did in 2016, and at a fraction of the latter’s salary.

No, those numbers aren’t eye-opening. They also aren’t stomach-turning. Barkley has topped 300 yards through the air twice in four starts and ranks a respectable 15th among quarterbacks per Pro Football Focus.

That’s better than Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals, Philip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers, Alex Smith of the …

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