Tyson

Bagent

Bagent was sent home with an illness and Case Keenum will serve as Caleb Williams’ backup for Week 15 against the Browns. Otherwise, the Bears are fairly healthy with four games left in the regular season.

The deal has another $6 million in incentives linked to playing time and production for the backup quarterback, who has impressed Bears head coach Ben Johnson this offseason. Bagent in 145 pass attempts over the past two seasons has a 66 percent completion rate an a lowly adjusted yards per attempt of 4.5. He has six interceptions to three touchdowns over those two seasons, and would step in as Chicago’s starting QB should Caleb Williams miss time or get benched in 2025.

The injury could cost Keenum his shot at earning the Bears’ No. 2 quarterback job. He currently sits behind fellow backup QB Tyson Bagent, and backup snaps will be harder to come by this weekend, with the starters slated to get some work early on against the Bills. Details on Keenum’s leg injury, suffered yesterday, have not yet been released. He spent the 2024 season on injured reserve with a foot injury.

Johnson said the Bears of the starters who will not play Sunday that they “have about nine on O, nine on D.” It sounds like we can expect to see plenty of backups on Sunday as the new-look Bears make their debut with or without Williams under center. With Williams out, the third-year signal-caller, Tyson Bagent, is expected to make the start as he looks to earn the QB2 job over Case Keenum.

Williams and the Chicago offense has collapsed in recent weeks, including in Week 10 against a bottom-dwelling Patriots defense that sacked Williams nine times. The rookie has taken a league-high 38 sacks on the season and has been sacked on 29 percent of his pressures — the third highest rate in the NFL. Williams has been the most inaccurate quarterback in the NFL over the past month. NFL executives told The Athletic that Williams had fallen back into many of the bad habits that plagued him at USC. “He is doing the same things he did in college in terms of holding the ball and being inconsistent with his reads,” a league executive said. “He could get away with running around, throwing the ball up for grabs, throwing across his body, and he had some success doing that. You don’t get away with that at the NFL level too often. I’m a little surprised they haven’t been able to clean some of this up.” Addressing Williams’ multitude of shortcomings will be the Bears’ primary goal in the final eight weeks of the season. He’ll almost assuredly have a new head coach and offensive coordinator in 2025.

The No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft was always expected to be named the starter, but credit the Bears for not wasting time with a phony quarterback camp battle before naming him the starter. Behind Williams is former Division II quarterback Tyson Bagent and NFL journeyman Brett Rypien — far from stiff competition for Williams. Now officially named as the starter, Williams will take all of the starting quarterback reps in camp and throughout the preseason as he prepares for his Week 1 opener in September.

Bagent won the Bears backup job prior to the season and was thrust into action after a Justin Fields thumb injury. He finishes his rookie season throwing for 859 passing yards on 143 attempts, with three touchdowns and six interceptions. Expect Bagent to be the backup in Chicago again, whether it is for Fields or a rookie.

Barring a setback in practice, Fields should be able to return from the thumb injury that has kept him sidelined over the past month. The Tyson Bagent era in Chicago is over for now. Fields enters the QB1 conversation upon his return. He was third in quarterback rushing attempts before his injury. The next seven games will effectively be a tryout for Fields as the team’s 2024 starter — or for another team willing to take on Fields as a project.

Making what should be his final start for a while, the 25-year-old undrafted rookie played No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young to a standstill in a truly wretched game of NFL football. Bagent kept it simple, avoiding sacks and peppering DJ Moore and Cole Kmet with 16 combined low-risk targets. He will now almost certainly give way to Justin Fields for Week 11 against the Lions. Although Bagent’s play has been truly remarkable by the standards of an undrafted Division II prospect, he hasn’t had the looks of a long-term No. 2. He has still almost certainly played his way into the role for 2024.

Fields got in three limited practices this week, but, on a short turnaround to Thursday Night Football, the Bears are giving him another game off as he works his way back from the thumb injury. The long rest period between now and next Sunday should allow Fields to get back on the pitch for Week 11. Tyson Bagent will get the starting nod one last time this week.