Man does it feel good to have Chicago Bears football back, and it equally feels good to be back to grading some QB film. The Bears hosted the Miami Dolphins last Sunday as each team played one another to a 24-24 draw. It was our first look at the 2025 rookie class, and most importantly (for me at least) the first look at our QB room, sans Caleb Williams, in 2025. So let’s take a dive, breakdown a few plays and figure out what we learned from week 1 of preseason!
| SG = Shotgun | UC = Under Center |
| T = Turnover Worthy Play | P = Poor Play |
| B = Bad Play | BA = Below Average Play |
| A = Average Play | AA = Above Average Play |
| G = Good Play | Gr = Great Play |
| E = Elite Play | TA = Throw Away |
| UG = Ungraded | LOS = Pass behind LOS |
| S = Short Pass (1-9 Yards) | M = Medium Pass (10-19 Yards) |
| D = Deep Pass (20+ Yards) | PA = Play Action |
| TTT = Time To Throw | TTP = Time To Pressure |
| TTS = Time To Sack |
Tyson Bagent
Tyson had an up and down afternoon
getting the bulk of the snaps between the 3 QB’s. He took every snap in the 1st half. He started his afternoon with back-to-back 3 and outs including 2 throws that were badly placed, throws that if were on target may have resulted in first downs. He followed up those 3 and outs nicely, however, by engineering a long touchdown drive, which was capped by a GREAT touchdown throw to Maurice Alexander in the back of the endzone threading some defenders between. His interception was deemed not Turnover Worthy in my grading, however it was graded as a “Poor” throw due to the quality of coverage, decision to throw into that coverage, and his tardiness on throwing a timing route which caused the pass to be broken up, and eventually picked. He also took a bad sack 2 plays before his touchdown throw. His line gave him 3.23s before he reacted to pressure, and he had a chance for an easy touchdown pass if he kept his eyes downfield, instead of reacting to backside pressure prematurely.
Best Play
Bagent’s touchdown throw stands out as his best throw of the day. His read is simple, it’s essentially a goal line scissors concept, and Bagent’s job is to read how the Safety reacts after the receivers cross one another and/or are handed off to defenders. Bagent reads this very well with the Safety over-committing to the route of #81 Durham Smythe, Bagent takes advantage of this loosing a ball with great anticipation (mostly out of necessity, Braxton Jones gets depantsed on his rep. With the Safety’s back to the ball Bagent rips a throw over two defenders and Alexander makes a great catch in the back of the endzone for the score.
Worst Play
Bagent’s final throw on the afternoon would be his worst. A 2 minute situation on a 1st down, Ben Johnson dials up a Levels concept. And it really seems like he pre-determines his throw, and even doing so he is late in getting the ball out. Ideally on In routes you want the ball out of your hands before the WR finishes his break if that is your first read. This allows the defender a minimal chance to break on the WR and make a play on the ball. Bagent is slow to the trigger here, not only allowing the DB to make up the gap with his assignment, but essentially allowing the DB to run the route with the intended target. Ideally this ball goes to Luther Burden who has more space to work with, both via separation and the open space Bagent can throw to on the field. The WR never even gets a hand on the ball, as the defender gets his hand there first. Ball knocked up and picked off, unluckily.
Case Keenum
Case looked as good on All 22 as he did live, throwing just 1 true incompletion, the throw on 4th down in the redzone being graded as a drop as the Jahdae Walker had both hands on it without immediate defenders to influence his ability to haul the throw in. He was the only Bears QB to attack the deep (20+ yards) portion of the field with success, including a dime over-the-shoulder touchdown toss to Jahdae Walker, who made a great grab to make up for his drop earlier. He seemed the most comfortable working from underneath Center, splitting his snaps there and in shotgun 50/50. He was mostly decisive and took advantage of depth players on the Miami defense very well. Of all 3 QB’s on Sunday, he was the one who relied on throws behind the LOS least, with just 1 attempt, that fell incomplete on a busted screen play.
Best Play
Case’s best throw came on his touchdown to Jahdae Walker in the 4th Quarter. A beautifully lofted over the shoulder fade route into good coverage. Case was decisive with his throw showing fantastic anticipation and accuracy with that anticipation, releasing the ball when Walker is at the 10, with Walker hauling it in about 5 yards into the endzone. Walker also makes a fantastic catch, over the shoulder balls are notoriously the hardest balls to catch, and makes up for his earlier endzone drop.
Worst Play
Honestly Case was clear all afternoon, even his “mistakes” came on free/dead plays that don’t count against him due to the penalty being committed on the player he was targeting with a throw. So, this is it. A blown up screen to Ian Wheeler, which if anything should have just been thrown at Wheelers feet, but still fell harmlessly incomplete either way.
Austin Reed
Austin started very efficiently, completing his first 5 passes. He took what the defense gave him underneath and way throwing accurately. But a deep incompletion on a very underthrown ball on 4th down started a run of bad play, including 2 back-to-back drops by now released John Jackson on the games final drive, all punctuated by perhaps the worst throw of the afternoon. On the Bears’ final offensive play, that I honestly was not sure who the intended target was (NFL+ credits Samori Toure with a target.)
Best Play
Austin’s best play came unfortunately on a drop on the last drive of the game. With pressure baring down on him, Austin delivers a ball with good anticipation to John Jackson on the Deep In, and in all honestly I don’t fully fault Jackson for the drop. This most likely should have been pass interference with how much the DB did not allow Jackson to get out of his break clean, but I still feel like this is a play Jackson needs to make. If this gets completed without Jackson getting muddied up he may be heading to the endzone. Reed also has a chance to hit Walker deep on this as Jahdae Walker is running a Post and is wide open with the Safety vacating his zone for the underneath route.
Worst Play
The last throw of the afternoon was a doozy, Reed had his man but just completely short arms the throw and throws it behind Toure. It’s off a standard Sail concept that is opened up decently well with JP Richardson running a Go clear out route. A small nod to Austin Reed throwing the ball with anticipation, as his delivery begins before Toure is out of his break, but complete inaccuracy gives Toure no shot at bringing the throw in. This throw if completed would have given the Bears a chance to win, instead they settle for the tie.
Odds and Ends
- All QB’s did a great job on getting the ball out quickly, with Keenum being the slowest at 2.60s, which is still below league average by about .15s
- We saw 10 plays ran that featured play action, using data from Caleb Williams alone, the Bears ran play action on just 13.67% in 2024. On 48 total plays charted this week, 10 were play action. A 20.83% rate.
- QB scores based off the time the were in game would have both Tyson Bagent (-0.50) and Austin Reed (-0.25) finishing with “Average” scores for a half, while Case Keenum (3.45) notched a “Fantastic” grade for his quarter and a half of play.
