The best teams stay viable when they lose their starting quarterback because they choose their backups wisely and have everything else in place.
When the Bears send undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent out for his first career start Sunday against the Raiders, it’ll be a test of general manager Ryan Poles’ and Matt Eberflus’ entire plan. It’s been shaky so far.
Bagent doesn’t sound like he needs help remembering the playbook or keeping the offense orderly. What he needs is the same thing Justin Fields needed: productive play around him. The best thing his established teammates can do for him, both offensively and defensively, is their jobs.
“Any way we can help him out makes things easier,” said tight end Cole Kmet, who singled out himself and wide receivers DJ Moore and Darnell Mooney. “Tyson’s gonna get the ball out of his hands, and then we’ve gotta do damage after the catch. We’ve gotta make a guy miss and get upfield.
“That hidden yardage is a way we can really help. If you can take a six-yard catch and make it into 10, that just makes things a lot easier for him.”
Throughout the offseason, Poles got constant questions about whether he’d put enough talent around Fields to facilitate his growth into a star. With Fields out, the question is modified to whether he has built enough for Bagent to have half a chance.
Moore is the Bears’ best player and has a history of producing no matter who plays quarterback. He had eight in five seasons with the Panthers and averaged over 1,000 yards anyway.
Bagent latched onto him immediately. After Moore got just two targets from Fields in the first half against the Vikings, Bagent threw to him on six of his 14 passes. That included a terribly underthrown pass to Moore that got intercepted.
While it’s vital Bagent grasp his mistakes on that pick, including bypassing good options underneath, betting on Moore is smart.
“DJ Moore, one of the best receivers in the world, one-on-one — any time we can get that, we like it,” Bagent said.
It’s on Bagent to take advantage of that single coverage, of course, but the Bears are banking on Moore, Mooney and Kmet to create easy opportunities for him.
The offensive line hasn’t looked right all season and still won’t have its intended starters since left tackle Braxton Jones and right guard Nate Davis are out.
The Bears likely will play backup Larry Borom at left tackle, put Cody Whitehair at left guard, use Lucas Patrick at center, shift Teven Jenkins from left guard to right and hope rookie right tackle Darnell Wright can be effective despite a shoulder injury that cost him practice time.
Not only does that group need to hold up well enough to save Bagent from backpedaling and scrambling, but if the Bears resume their power running game, that also lightens his burden. For all their optimism, there’s no way the Bears want him throwing 30-40 times in his starting debut.
Which brings us to the defense.
The Bears have allowed an NFL-worst 27.8 points per game over the last two seasons, and a performance like that — or worse — would set the bar unrealistically high for Bagent.
The Raiders are averaging just 16.7 points per game and broke 20 for the first time last week thanks to a late safety. They have yet to score more than two touchdowns in a game.
Can the Bears just hold them to their average? Is that too grand a request?
If they can, it’ll give Bagent margin and a plausible path to victory. The last thing the Bears want is to be trailing all game and forcing their inexperienced quarterback to throw into a defense that knows what’s coming.
It all sounds simple enough, but if it was so feasible, they would’ve been doing it all along and wouldn’t be 1-5.
