Geoff Hobson reports that the Bengals are expected to sign QB Matt Barkley to a two-year contract and have him serve as Andy Dalton‘s backup for the 2018 season.
Cincinnati was clearly going to be in the backup quarterback market after losing A.J. McCarron to the Bills, so this doesn’t come as a big surprise. I still wouldn’t rule out the possibility of them taking a quarterback to develop in this year’s draft.
Barkley, 27, is a former fourth-round pick by the Eagles of the 2013 NFL Draft. He spent two years with the Eagles before he was traded to the Cardinals in return for a seventh-round pick at the start of 2015 season.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals elected to waive Barkley coming out of the preseason 2016, but he later signed on to the Bears’ practice squad before being called up a few weeks into the regular season.
The 49ers signed Barkley to a contract last year, but he was unable to make the 53-man roster coming out of the preseason, but eventually caught on with the Cardinals to finish out the year.
In 2016, Barkley threw for 1,611 while completing 59.7 percent of his passes to go along with eight touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
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