Rozner: Timing finally works for Chicago Bears' Barkley

During his darkest days, Matt Barkley had to wonder if an NFL team was ever going to take him seriously.

But he's living proof that you can go from zero to 60 in a heartbeat given the state of NFL quarterback play.

And given the state of the Chicago Bears, he's now the John Fox flavor of the day and likely to get a solid NFL contract after this season, whether it's from the locals or someone else.

"The young man has continued to impress me," Fox said of Barkley, who will turn 27 the first week of the 2017 season. "He came in and started with a week's work (against Tennessee) and performed well.

"The conditions he played in a week ago (against San Francisco in the snow), even though it was at home, it was still tough conditions for a quarterback or anybody that handles the ball.

"And then to come (to Detroit) on the road against a good football team in a loud environment, (he) continues to be a bright spot."

Easy to see how there's an assumption now that Barkley will at least compete for a starting job next summer and is probably the leader in the clubhouse as the Bears search for a quarterback to draft in the spring.

So is he the next Josh McCown? Is he Jimmy Clausen? Or is he more like Jake Delhomme?

Yeah, that's the guy Fox installed as the starter in Carolina in 2003 - 30 minutes into Game 1 - in Fox's second year as a head coach, and the new quarterback led the Panthers to the Super Bowl.

Fox knew almost nothing about Delhomme when he put the 28-year-old in charge of his offense. In fact, Barkley with three NFL starts has more than Delhomme did when he signed with Carolina.

Undrafted in 1997, Delhomme played in NFL Europe for a couple of years before getting two starts for the Saints in 1999. He disappeared again until 2002, existing as a third-stringer, when he played in four games for New Orleans, including a December game in which he went 7-for-8 in relief in a victory over Baltimore.

At that point, in his last effort before signing with Carolina, Delhomme - the starter in Carolina for seven years - had thrown 86 NFL passes. Barkley has already thrown 169, with 119 of those coming this season.

And it's easy to root for Barkley.

The first true freshman QB to ever start an opener at USC, after being the top high school recruit in the country, Barkley starred for the Trojans when he wasn't injured.

By the time he was a junior, he finished sixth in Heisman voting and was projected as a top-10 draft pick, but he chose to return to USC for his senior season, this time as the Heisman favorite, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the draft and with the top-ranked team in the country heading into the season.

But a Week 3 loss ended the Trojans' title hopes and a shoulder injury against UCLA ended Barkley's season. It knocked him out of the first round of the 2013 draft, eventually falling to the Eagles in the fourth round (No. 98).

By September 2015, Barkley had been traded to Arizona and he was cut at the end of the 2016 preseason, later signing with the Bears' practice squad.

It doesn't sound like Fox knew much about him at the time.

"The personnel people thought he was a taller guy who stood in the pocket pretty well," Fox said. "Young guy we thought we could work with who has some experience."

And now here he is, an NFL starter because of injury and with very little experience, which is probably less his fault than his status as a fourth-round pick who's never had much of an opportunity to prove he can play in the NFL.

So these next three games - all against teams fighting for a playoff spot - matter a lot to Barkley, who hardly has tanking on his mind.

This is his chance to show he belongs, and with any game he wins, ironically enough, he moves the Bears back in the draft and makes it more difficult for them to get the young QB they desire.

But out of nowhere, even with a receiving corps you could purchase at Wal-Mart, Barkley looks like he has an NFL future.

That's not a bad story at all.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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