Bagent placed in concussion protocol, the latest wrinkle in the Bears’ quarterback room

Bears coach Ben Johnson said Monday that he doesn’t expect starting quarterback Caleb Williams to practice this week.

What Johnson didn’t say is the availability of backup Tyson Bagent also is in question for both practice and Monday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Soldier Field.

Bagent is in the league’s concussion protocol after his relief effort in Sunday’s 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, news that was first reported Tuesday by NFL Media and confirmed by a league source. That means the Bears could be forced to turn to 38-year-old Case Keenum, who last started in Week 16 of the 2023 season for the Houston Texans.

Johnson did not rule out Williams from potentially playing against the Eagles when the Bears coach addressed reporters via Zoom on Monday. He called Williams “week to week” with the right hamstring injury he suffered in the fourth quarter against the Vikings.

But he did say he doesn’t expect Williams to practice, and it’s worth wondering if the team would want to push Williams to return quickly and risk making the injury worse.

“This guy’s a little bit different than the average human being,” Johnson said of Williams. “I said that (Sunday) night. I’ll double down on that. He gets back — he has in the past — a lot faster than what people can anticipate.

“I’m not putting a timeline on this. We’re going to say week to week. He’s going to attack this with everything that he knows.”

While it’s unknown specifically when Bagent was injured, it could have happened on the final play when Dallas Turner sacked him on fourth down, slamming him to the turf at the end of the play.

While Williams can push his rehabilitation, Bagent’s availability will be up to medical personnel as he must meet benchmarks to be cleared from the concussion protocol. Vikings starting quarterback Kyler Murray suffered a concussion in a Week 1 win over the Green Bay Packers and was limited in practice all last week. He wasn’t cleared until Monday, a day after the game against the Bears.

The Bears have high hopes for Bagent, who members of the team have said is skilled enough to be a starting NFL quarterback. He excelled in the preseason finale at Tennessee, completing 16 of 17 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns. The Bears signed Bagent to a two-year, $10 million extension in August 2025.

Bagent completed 5 of 9 passes for 54 yards after replacing Williams on Sunday, with one of the incompletions a spike to stop the clock. He moved the offense from the Bears 35-yard line to the Vikings 12, where things fizzled out and Turner sacked him to end the comeback bid.

“I would be a lot more concerned if I didn’t have a year and a half under our belts together now,” Johnson said Sunday. “I’ve seen him every single day in practice. We’ve had a lot of reps during the course of training camp and in the preseason. If it goes that route, I feel strongly about what he’s capable of.

“And our team does too. They know he’s a darn good football player. He’s won games in the past. Him and Case both have won games in this league. There’s a lot of confidence that both of those guys can get the job done if it comes to it.”

In retrospect, it’s interesting that Johnson weaved Keenum’s name into his answer to a question about adapting the offense to Bagent. He also talked Monday about the quarterback room as a whole when asked to expand on Bagent’s growth in his second season in the system.

“With all those quarterbacks, they all grew from the understanding of what we were trying to get done,” Johnson said. “We charted every single throw last year, and all three quarterbacks jumped from Year 1 to Year 2 over the course of training camp, which was an encouraging thing to see and really to be expected.

“The mastery of the offense in that room is at another level. We’ve got a really dynamic quarterback room in terms of guys that are challenging each other. They’ve got great ideas, very smart, cerebral. They push each other, and we’ve got three guys that can win football games.”

It remains to be seen whom the Bears will have at quarterback Monday night. Two of the options have serious availability questions at this juncture.