Bears coach Ben Johnson is in unchartered territory.
He’s never called plays in a game in which he had to start a backup quarterback. In fact, Monday’s game against the Eagles figures to be the first time in his play-calling career — three years with the Lions and two with the Bears — that he started a quarterback who wasn’t a former No. 1 overall pick.
Whether that’s Case Keenum or Tyson Bagent, though, is another question altogether.
“Not sure who the starter is going to be Monday night,” Johnson said.
Keenum, the 38-year-old third-stringer, was the only quarterback on the Bears’ 53-man roster to practice Wednesday. Miller Moss, the practice-squad quarterback, took reps with the second team. The Bears — who will submit their first injury report to the league Thursday afternoon — don’t plan to add another quarterback during the week.
Second-stringer Tyson Bagent was placed in the NFL’s concussion protocol after replacing starter Caleb Williams for the last half of the fourth quarter in Sunday’s 9-3 home loss to the Vikings. Bagent was not at Halas Hall on Wednesday because he’s in the early part of that protocol. Johnson, who learned about Bagent going into protocol via text Tuesday morning, presumes the quarterback was injured when he was hit in the head by outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel two plays after he took over for Williams.
Williams, who pulled his hamstring, won’t practice all week. Johnson called him “week-to-week” and has yet to officially rule him out for Monday night’s game, but his participation seems unlikely. Johnson said having to deal with the injury was “foreign” to Williams, who before Sunday had yet to miss a significant snap as a pro.
“I know he’s an antsy individual,” Johnson said. “He’s a competitor. He wants to be out there on the grass going full speed. So it is a little bit more challenging to hold a guy back like that. But if you could build a player, that’s what you’d want him to be.”
Two weeks after posting 59 points — and one week after scoring only three — Johnson will have to get creative to find a game plan flexible enough to work for both Bagent and Keenum. Johnson didn’t make that sound too difficult.
“[Keenum] is a big part of this,” Johnson said. “And so I’m not concerned at all about calling the game for him or how he can potentially play on Monday night.”
Wednesday, the coach leaned on a familiar us-against-the-world theme.
“It’s opportunity — it’s the way I see it,” he said. “I think our guys see it as that as well. One of those things that everyone outside the building I am sure is writing us off and telling us it can’t be done, and we really relish that. So, guys will step up to the plate, guys that maybe we don’t anticipate or expect.”
Keenum smiled when he approached an interested media horde Tuesday.
“Escalated quickly, huh?” he said.
Keenum has started 66 career games but hasn’t thrown a pass in a regular season game since 2023. If he plays Monday, he’ll become the fourth-oldest player to go under center this year, behind Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco and Matthew Stafford. Stafford was born 10 days before Keenum.
Keenan was sharp this preseason, albeit against backups. posting a 107.7 passer rating and going 25-for-40 for 354 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bears signed him in 2025 — at the time, he thought his NFL career might be over — to mentor Williams and Bagent. Keenum has even tried to make his own voice and cadence at the line of scrimmage to sound as much like Williams as possible.
“I feel very prepared,” he said. “It’s what I do every week. It’s what I’ve done for a long time. I’ve backed up a long time in this league. If my name’s called, I’m excited to be out there.”
Johnson pointed to Keenum’s college success. When he left Houston, he was the leading passer in NCAA history with both 19,217 yards and 155 touchdowns.
“He’s been a baller from the day he was born …” Johnson said. “He’s got that way about him. He’s got a knack. His teammates gravitate to him. I think that’s a good starting point for a quarterback. And of course he’s up there in years a little bit, but that experience has really paid off for him. He sees the game the same way we do. …
“He might be a step slower than he was when he first entered the league, and yet his mind is going so fast it helps catch him on up. And he’s playing as good of football as he probably has his entire career, is what he’d tell you.”
Johnson figures to lean even more on a run game that, through two weeks, leads with the NFL with 212 yards per game. But even that grew complicated Wednesday, when Kyle Monangai wasn’t spotted during the portion of practice open to the media.
The coach spend the week planning — and trying not to put too much pressure on whomever plays quarterback.
“It’s not just on one player — it never is,” Johnson said. “So we got 10 other guys out there with our quarterback. They got to help champion the cause and carry their weight as well. So, as far as I’m concerned, not a whole lot changes from a coaching perspective.”
