The Chicago Bears are 2-1, and the biggest open question in the building is which backup quarterback takes the first snap against the New York Jets. Tyson Bagent is expected to get it, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and The Athletic’s Dan Wiederer, with Caleb Williams ruled out.
Head coach Ben Johnson has not made it official. He has, however, made his reasoning fairly obvious.
Why Bagent And Not Keenum
“There was a reason why Tyson ended training camp as our No. 2 quarterback,” Johnson said. He went further elsewhere: “Tyson Bagent won the backup job out of camp, and there is a reason for that. They believe in him. They have also paid him.” Johnson has previously said he considers Bagent to be around one of the best 32 quarterbacks in the league.
The complication is that Case Keenum was excellent. The 38-year-old was not supposed to play at all. He started Week 3 only because Bagent was in concussion protocol, then went 24 of 34 for 247 yards with two touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown in a Monday night upset of Philadelphia. He became the oldest Bear ever to run for a score.
Benching the guy who just beat the Eagles is a real decision, and Johnson is making it on depth-chart principle rather than on one box score. That is defensible. It is also the kind of call that gets a coach cooked if Bagent plays badly.
How Chicago Got Here
Williams pulled a hamstring in Week 2 against Minnesota and will miss his second straight game. No return timeline has been reported. Bagent cleared concussion protocol in time to be active as Keenum’s backup in Week 3, which is why the job is his to lose rather than Keenum’s to keep.
So Chicago’s Week 4 starter is an undrafted 26-year-old who is 2-2 as a starter and has completed 104 of 158 career passes, 65.8 percent, for 971 yards with three touchdowns and six interceptions. Twice as many picks as touchdowns is not a line that inspires anyone.
What This Says About The Bears
The encouraging reading is that none of this has cost Chicago anything yet. The Bears are 2-1 having already handed a start to a quarterback nobody planned on, and that start produced a win over Philadelphia. Johnson’s offense is functioning without its franchise passer, which is more than most teams in this spot can claim.
The worrying reading is that a backup-versus-third-stringer debate is happening at all in Week 4, and that it is playing out in public. Chicago took Williams first overall to end exactly this kind of week. One hamstring has turned the position into a running news cycle about whether the camp No. 2 or a 38-year-old journeyman gives the team a better chance against a 1-2 Jets team.
New York is the right opponent for finding out. Chicago gets to learn what Bagent actually is against a beatable defense, with a 2-1 record as a cushion instead of a crisis.
If Bagent wins, Johnson looks like a coach who trusted his own evaluation and got paid for it. If Keenum has to come in and clean it up again, the Bears will have spent a week arguing over a job neither man was ever meant to hold. The fastest fix on the roster is still Williams’ hamstring.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.