Amid Tyson Bagent’s strong preseason for the Chicago Bears, questions are starting to float around local media about how long of a leash second-year quarterback Caleb Williams has entering the season.
Last week, Bagent signed a two-year extension worth $10 million. The third-year quarterback finished the preseason 46-of-69 passing for 511 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception. He threw the game-winning touchdown to help the Bears defeat the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday night.
Williams finished his preseason on a high note, leading Chicago to a touchdown against the Chiefs backups. But his struggles against Kansas City’s first-team defense were concerning, as head coach Ben Johnson noted the mistakes made were the same ones seen at the beginning of training camp.
The Chicago Bears expected to have a relatively short leash at QB1
During an appearance on 670 The Score’s “Rahimi & Harris Show” on Monday, Dan Wiederer of The Athletic said it’s too early to talk about the Bears benching Williams for Bagent early in the season, but things could change if Johnson doesn’t see enough progress by the bye in Week 5–at least temporarily.
“I don’t think this head coach is just going to sit around on his hands and go, ‘You know, like we’re just going to give Caleb forever to meet and reach the checkpoints that we’ve set out for him.’ And so because you now have a QB2 that everyone in the building believes in and continues to show significant progress from where he was two plus years ago when he walked in this building to now–that conversation isn’t one that Chicago should be scared of,” Wiederer said.
“You should feel great about the things that Tyson Bagent has done to put himself in position to be a guy that can either fill in in case of emergency or be an answer for you if you need. A temporary switch of lanes here as you go.”
Tyson Bagent isn’t the long-term fix
Frankly, the Bears doing what the Carolina Panthers did with Bryce Young last season and benching Williams would be a colossal mistake for Johnson. Johnson was brought in from the Detroit Lions to do something Chicago failed at with Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields. Develop a first-round pick at quarterback.
Bagent isn’t a long-term solution as a starting quarterback. He doesn’t have the arm strength to push the ball down the field. The Bears need to have patience with Williams for the entire season as he masters his second offense in as many seasons.
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