Where were you for “The Case Keenum” game? This is one we are going to remember for years as Bears fans. A 38-year-old QB who was basically brought on as QB3 so he could be an assistant QB coach to Caleb Williams. A player who has admitted he was about to retire until Ben Johnson convinced him to come to Chicago.
That man goes out there and makes his first start in over 1,000 days, a player who hasn’t started regular-season games regularly in the NFL since before the pandemic. That man went out there,
turned back the block, and turned in a magical performance, leading the Bears to a 27-7 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s been straightforward for two years. Keenum is QB3, Tyson Bagent is QB2, and of course, Caleb Williams is QB1. Williams is going to be out at least one, perhaps two more games. So before he returns, who should the Bears keep behind center?
Should Case Keenum or Tyson Bagent start against the Jets?
The Bears face the New York Jets on Sunday and, as of now, the only thing we’ve heard from Ben Johnson is, “We will have a discussion as a coaching staff and see where we need to go from here. But I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: there was a reason why Tyson ended training camp as our No. 2 quarterback.”
That certainly would indicate that Johnson is leaning towards going back to Bagent, although he didn’t close the door on Keenum going again. What is the move? Should the Bears go back to Keenum, or go back to their long-time QB2, Tyson Bagent?
Answer: I really want the answer to be Keenum here, but I think the answer is Bagent. I can’t get enough of the Keenum story. I’m watching every clip and every interview on social media that I can find. It’s one of the great human interest stories I have seen in football over the last few years, and it just touches on all the right notes.
It was the perfect game plan, and the Bears executed it perfectly- not just Keenum, the entire offense.
But with 60 minutes of tape, you would have to think that an NFL Coach (even if that coach is Aaron Glenn) would be able to put together a solid counterattack on how to defend the Keenum offense. Keenum looked phenomenal. His short and intermediate passes were excellent, but those deep balls looked shaky, to say the least.
I think, with the idea that the Jets will be far more prepared to handle any kind of Keenum game plan, that it is probably smarter to go back to Bagent and be able to have a little more freedom within the body of the plan and have a QB with more mobility as well, which should open up the playbook a bit more.
Bottom line for me, I’m going to support whichever decision Ben Johnson makes. The man is clearly an offensive genius, and if he says Keenum is the best man for the Jets game, I certainly won’t argue. There would be a part of me that would love to see him get another opportunity. We may not even get an answer until close to game time because Ben may want to keep the Jets off balance, but I do think that, when the dust settles and the game kicks off, Ben will go with Bagent, and I do think that’s the right call.
