Lost in coach Matt Eberflus’ ridiculous claim that going 2-2 in the last four games is a sign the Bears are moving in the right direction was what sure sounded like a built-in excuse.
“Obviously, we had an injury to our starting quarterback,” Eberflus said after firing running backs coach David Walker in another melodramatic episode at Halas Hall on Wednesday. “We had a backup come in and win a game for us.”
After beating the Raiders, then losing to the Chargers, undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent is expected to start again Sunday against the Saints at the Superdome. Eberflus ruled regular starter Justin Fields out on Monday, then called him doubtful on Friday after he had his first extensive throwing session since dislocating his thumb three weeks ago. Barring something completely unexpected — Eberflus has never made a doubtful player active on game day — Bagent will give the Bears at least one more turn at quarterback.
But don’t feel sorry for them. Twenty-eight teams are playing games in Week 9. Eight of them — 29% — are starting quarterbacks who weren’t their Week 1 starters. And five of those eight are rookies: the Titans’ Will Levis, the Vikings’ Jaren Hall, the Cardinals’ Clayton Tune, the Raiders’ Aidan O’Connell and Bagent.
Amazingly, Bagent is the most experienced of the five. O’Connell is making just his second NFL start and Hall and Tune their first. Levis made his second start Thursday night in a loss to the Steelers.
Two more rookie quarterbacks playing Sunday have been starters since Week 1 — the Texans’ C.J. Stroud and the Panthers’ Bryce Young, both first-round picks. Two other No. 1 quarterbacks, the Packers’ Jordan Love and the Commanders’ Sam Howell, had one career start apiece when the season began.
Add it all up, and almost half the teams playing this week are starting either a first-year quarterback — or something close to one — or a backup. Or, in many cases, both.
The Bears have benefitted from it, facing Love, Howell and Brian Hoyer, who was the Raiders’ backup-turned-starter before yielding the role to O’Connell, a Stevenson High School alum. The Bears’ only two wins this season are against the Commanders and Raiders.
Bagent’s performance against the Raiders — 21-for-29 for 162 yards against a team eight days away from firing its coach and general manager — took a little pressure off Fields to return quickly. Winning last week would have created a quarterback controversy in certain corners of the fan base. But Bagent couldn’t catch up against a dynamic Chargers offense, throwing two interceptions and posting a passer rating of 62.0 in a 17-point loss that didn’t feel that close.
“We would give [Fields] all the time he needs to come back full and healthy — we’re always gonna do that,” Eberflus said. “But, certainly, having Tyson with the way he operates the offense and his functionality in our offense . . . it’s been a big positive.”
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy bemoaned the Bears’ turnovers last week but said some of what the offense has done well under Bagent can translate when Fields returns.
“I think you can see [that] the play style and the way we want to play the game is definitely improving each week,” Getsy said.
While the other four rookie replacement starters this week were drafted this year (Levis was the highest, in Round 2), Bagent is a development story. The Bears signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Division II Shepherd University, promoted him to second string when they cut P.J. Walker and showed enough confidence in him to start him the last two weeks.
For that, they deserve credit. What they don’t deserve is sympathy.
