For about 18 hours, Chicago held its breath. Then Monday arrived and the Bears got the news they had no business expecting.
Caleb Williams avoided a major hamstring injury. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported Monday that the imaging came back with what is being described as the best-case scenario, and that Chicago is not yet ruling Williams out for Week 3 against Philadelphia.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson tempered that later in the day on ESPN 1000, saying he expects Williams to be week-to-week with the right hamstring. Week-to-week, after what everyone watched Sunday, counts as a gift.
The Play That Emptied Soldier Field
Williams went down in the fourth quarter of a 9-3 loss to Minnesota, scrambling on a first-and-goal play with the Bears trailing 6-3. There was no contact. He grabbed at his right leg, got helped off the field, and was then carted from the sideline to the locker room with 7:15 left.
Non-contact leg injuries on a rainy field tend to end badly. The 24-year-old former No. 1 overall pick lying on the turf at Soldier Field looked like a season ending in Week 2. It did not.
What Chicago Loses in the Short Term
Williams was not the problem Sunday. He finished 15-of-26 for 138 yards with an interception against a Vikings defense that held Chicago to three points, but Week 1 was a different story entirely. In a 59-37 win at Carolina, Williams went 21-of-29 for 269 yards and two touchdown passes while adding 65 rushing yards and two more scores on the ground. His QBR that day was a career-best 94.9.
That is the version of Williams the Bears built this offense around. Losing him for two or three weeks in September is survivable. Losing him for the year would have gutted everything Johnson has been constructing.
Tyson Bagent Is Better Than You Remember
Tyson Bagent takes over, and Bears fans should not treat that like a death sentence. Bagent went 5-of-9 for 54 yards in relief Sunday before Dallas Turner sacked him on fourth down in the red zone to end it.
The 26-year-old is an undrafted find out of Division II Shepherd University who holds the NCAA all-divisions record for career touchdown passes and won the Harlon Hill Trophy. He started four games as a rookie when Justin Fields was hurt and went 2-2. Chicago liked him enough to hand him a two-year, $10 million extension in August 2025.
Bagent is not going to throw for 269 yards and run for two scores. He is also not going to lose a game by himself.
The Schedule Does Chicago No Favors
The Bears sit at 1-1 and host Philadelphia on Monday night, Sept. 28. Then comes the Jets on Oct. 4, also at home. A Week 3 return for Williams would be aggressive even by best-case standards, which puts Week 4 against New York in play as the realistic target, roughly two full weeks from the injury.
That math works if the strain is Grade 1, which is what the early framing suggests. It falls apart fast if Chicago rushes him back against a Philadelphia pass rush and he tweaks it again.
The Right Call Is Obvious
Sit him. Bears fans will hate hearing it with the Eagles coming to Soldier Field on national television, but the franchise quarterback with a soft-tissue injury does not play Week 3 to chase one win in September.
Hamstrings that get re-aggravated turn into month-long absences. Johnson has seen enough quarterback situations to know that. Chicago got the break of its season on Monday, and the fastest way to waste it is to cash it in nine days later.
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.