Chicago will start a backup quarterback for the second straight week, and the Bears are winning anyway.
Head coach Ben Johnson announced Friday that Caleb Williams is out with a hamstring strain. Williams did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Timelines reported for the injury range from two to four weeks.
The Starter Is Undecided
Case Keenum started last week and led three touchdown drives in a 27-7 win over Philadelphia. Tyson Bagent, coming back from a concussion, is the other option.
Johnson is not announcing it. “We’ll see on Sunday,” he said.
Bagent sounds like a man who understands the moment. “The situation I’m in is unbelievable to me,” he said.
Keenum Should Keep the Job
This is not complicated. Keenum just beat a good team by 20 points and produced three touchdown drives in his first start. Bagent is coming off a head injury and has not taken a meaningful snap.
You do not change quarterbacks after a 27-7 win because the other guy got medically cleared. Johnson is almost certainly keeping his options open publicly and starting Keenum.
The Offensive Line Is the Actual Concern
Theo Benedet starts at left tackle with Braxton Jones injured Monday night. Running back D’Andre Swift, dealing with a knee issue, was expected to practice Friday.
A backup quarterback behind a backup left tackle is how a competent offense becomes a liability. Chicago is 2-1 on the strength of a defense and a run game, and both of those need the line to hold up.
What Williams Missing a Month Would Mean
Here is the uncomfortable version of this story for Chicago. If the Bears go 2-1 with Keenum while Williams sits for three or four weeks, the franchise has a conversation it did not plan on having.
That would not be a reason to bench a first-overall pick. Williams is the long-term answer and a hamstring strain is nobody’s referendum. It does tell you something about how this team is constructed: the roster around the quarterback is good enough to win games without elite quarterback play, which is the opposite of the situation Chicago has had for most of the last decade.
Sunday Should Be Manageable
The Bears host the Jets. Chicago has not confirmed its record publicly beyond the results, and the date Williams was injured has not been specified in reporting.
Get through this stretch at .500 or better and Williams returns to a team still in the playoff picture. That was not a sentence anyone in Chicago expected to write in October with the starting quarterback hurt.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
