Johnson says Bagent to start for Bears against Packers

Tyson Bagent will start at quarterback for the Chicago Bears in Week 5 against the Green Bay Packers, coach Ben Johnson said Monday.

During his weekly radio spot on WMVP-AM 1000 with Bears play-by-play voice Jeff Joniak, Johnson said Bagent would be “the guy” Sunday at Lambeau Field. Last week Johnson didn’t announce a starter before the Week 4 matchup with the New York Jets, but there will be no such gamesmanship this week.

Bagent led the Bears to a 23-12 victory over the Jets on Sunday at Soldier Field. He was 25 of 34 passing for 268 yards with an interception as the Bears leaned heavily on their running game, with Kyle Monangai contributing 146 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries.

“I thought (Bagent) did a great job with the operation,” Johnson said later Monday when he met with the media in a virtual news conference. “The game didn’t seem too big for him, yet there’s a few missed opportunities out there as well.

“He wants to continue to home in on his ball location, making sure he’s getting the ball out in front of guys properly so that they can run through the catch. I’m pleased with where he was for the first week.”

Bagent will be behind center for the second consecutive week as starting quarterback Caleb Williams continues to recover from a strained hamstring he suffered in Week 2.

“He’s doing a great job with his rehab,” Johnson said of Williams. “He’s not going to be there this week for us. We think it’s still a week-to-week deal.”

Third-string quarterback Case Keenum started in a Week 3 win over the Philadelphia Eagles because Bagent missed most of that week of practice due to concussion symptoms. With Bagent fully healthy entering the Jets game, Johnson transitioned to the fourth-year pro, who has been the Bears’ No. 2 quarterback since his rookie season in 2023.

The Bears technically started both Bagent and Keenum against the Jets. Keenum took the first snap at quarterback with Bagent lined up at wide receiver. But after that play, it was all Bagent.

After the game, Johnson indicated he was irked by reports over the weekend that said Bagent would start at quarterback.

“I got all these memos saying that Tyson was starting before I ever made an announcement,” Johnson said Sunday. “So I wanted to get Case out there first time. It was like his ceremonial first pitch out there, handing off the torch.”

With Williams set to miss his third game, Bagent is in line for his sixth career start. The Bears and Packers will meet for the first time since the Bears erased an 18-point halftime deficit to win a wild-card playoff game in January at Soldier Field.

Here are three other things we learned from Johnson and the Bears on Monday.

1. Ben Johnson won’t bag on Tyson Bagent and D’Andre Swift about turnovers.

That was the biggest blemish on the Bears offense Sunday. Bagent threw one pick to Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and had three others negated by New York penalties — though on one of them, Bagent knew a defensive offside penalty gave him a free play.

In the first quarter, Bagent tried to squeeze a short throw over the middle to Colston Loveland, but Jets defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat was already moving in that direction and caught it with one hand. However, cornerback Azareye’h Thomas was flagged for illegal use of hands while covering Rome Odunze.

“If he feels like he can’t complete it there, he’s got to dirt it,” Johnson said. “When you have the clicker in your hand, there’s an opportunity to hit that on the other side of Sweat, but he’s got to make that decision in real time. But we certainly can’t put that ball in jeopardy like that.”

In the fourth quarter, Jets cornerback D’Angelo Ponds intercepted a deep crosser to Kalif Raymond, but Ponds was penalized for holding Raymond earlier in the route.

“The one to Kalif, that’s exactly where we want to go with the ball,” Johnson said, “and I thought the foul had something to do with us not being open on that play.”

He attributed some of Bagent’s decisions to a lack of playing time. He also said he doesn’t want Bagent to lose that aggressiveness.

“We had some opportunities for some big plays down the field that he didn’t pull the trigger on also, so there’s a balancing act there,” Johnson said. “It’s something that we’ll be able to talk to him about, review the tape and learn from and move on from.”

Meanwhile, Swift lost a fumble in Bears territory in the third quarter. The defense held the Jets to a field goal.

Johnson said the Bears had been moving the ball well, so what “was going to hold us back was if we shot ourselves in the foot. So we can’t have it.”

Swift didn’t play another snap after that as Johnson handed the reins to Monangai. Still, Johnson didn’t feel the need to harp on Swift on Monday.

“There’s really no message that needs to be said to anybody,” he said. “Nobody wants to put the ball on the ground. Nobody wants to turn it over. Nobody wants to drop the ball.

“We all have to have short memories. We’ve got to learn from it.”

2. The Bears don’t believe Kyle Monangai’s thumb will be an issue.

Johnson announced after the game that Monangai had a thumb injury “that we’re taking a look at.”

When Monangai was asked what happened, he replied: “I couldn’t even tell you. I just looked down at my hand and said, ‘Oh, that hurt.’”

Johnson doesn’t believe it will be a lingering problem.

“We think he’s going to be OK,” he said Monday. “So we’ll see what it looks like as we go through the week here, but more of a day-to-day type deal.”

Heading into Monday night’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, Monangai’s 30 carries led all Week 4 rushers, while his 146 yards ranked second behind Kenneth Walker III’s 177 for the Kansas City Chiefs.

3. The red zone remains a problem.

The Bears ranked 30th before Monday night’s game in red-zone efficiency at 42.11%, and their opening series Sunday served as a shining example of their problems.

The Bears ran four consecutive plays from the 3-yard line or closer and had two Swift touchdowns reversed upon review before turning the ball over on downs.

Johnson said the red-zone offense was set back by negative plays in Week 3 against the Eagles. On Sunday, “that wasn’t the case,” he said.

“We stayed more on schedule and on track, and our details got a little bit haywire,” he said. “So we need to do a better job installing the play, having the guys understand what the intent of the play is.

“And we’ve got to make sure we get a great practice on Friday, which is our red-zone day, to make sure that any issues that could come up, we would go ahead and address then and there and we’re good to go for game day.”