Three weeks ago, Case Keenum was the Chicago Bears’ emergency third option, a 38-year-old who hadn’t taken a real NFL snap in two-plus years. On Monday night, he had his best game in years against Vic Fangio’s defense and the unbeaten Eagles.
In his first start since being benched on Christmas Eve in 2023, Keenum completed 24 of 34 passes for 247 yards – his most yards since 2019 – and two touchdown passes. He also called his own number on a TD sneak that put the 27-7 Bears victory away in the fourth quarter in his regular-season debut for Chicago.
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Bears head coach Ben Johnson suddenly has a quarterback call he couldn’t have imagined that long ago. With Caleb Williams out, Monday night was supposed to be the Tyson Bagent show, but because Bagent wasn’t cleared in time, the duty fell on Keenum.
“It was so fun working with Ben this week,” Keenum told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. “He is a magician. I mean, he was in his bag tonight. It was a lot of fun having him in my ear.”
Keenum nailed the assignment. He outplayed Jalen Hurts by a clean margin. Fangio essentially dared Keenum to beat them at first, and Keenum did just that. When Fangio brought pressure, Keenum was outstanding vs. the blitz.
“He knows where everyone’s supposed to be on every single play,” Johnson said. “That’s what you get when you’re 15-plus years in this league. Coach Fangio threw a lot at him tonight. Case handled it really well.”
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Now, with Williams expected to be sidelined another 3-4 weeks with his grade-2 hamstring strain, Johnson has a decision to make on his starting quarterback until Williams returns. Keep with Keenum? Back Bagent? Johnson didn’t explicitly say but did suggest that Bagent hadn’t been surpassed.
“Well, we’ll have a discussion as a coaching staff, and we’ll see where we need to go from here,” Johnson said. “But I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: there was a reason why Tyson ended training camp as our No. 2 quarterback.”
No matter his fate next week, Keenum played like a starter Monday. There were a few passes in harm’s way, but for the most part Keenum resembled the quarterback who piloted the 2017 Vikings to what was looking like a miracle season until things fell apart in the NFC Championship Game.
The biggest thing: A week after the sloppy home loss to the Vikings that saw Williams get hurt, the Bears played clean football. Zero turnovers. Zero sacks. Two offensive penalties. Even a dropped touchdown by Rome Odunze, followed by a fourth-down failure, couldn’t taint this night.
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Either Keenum or Bagent will play a significant role in Bears’ playoff hopes
Backups have played significant roles for playoff-bound teams in recent seasons. Joe Flacco stepped in for an injured Deshaun Watson and helped the Browns make the playoffs in 2023. Davis Mills and Malik Willis both had multi-start stints for the Texans and Packers, respectively, with both making the playoffs.
Backup quarterbacks have been one of the biggest stories of the 2026 NFL season, too, and Keenum elevated the narrative with his excellent showing.
The Bears moved to 2-1, and the postseason has been the expectation after last year’s wild ride. Williams’ injury was a major blow, but if Keenum or Bagent can play anywhere close to this level for the next few games, they can treat it as a speed bump.
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They’ve got the Jets at home, followed by road games against the Packers and Falcons. The Williams watch should be back on around that time, or perhaps for the Bears’ Thursday night game against the Patriots in Week 7.
The Bears really like Bagent. He held his own before Johnson arrived, being thrown into a rough spot as an undrafted rookie, acquitting himself well enough in five starts, along with all of his other work behind the scenes. That earned a contract extension, Johnson’s admiration and – maybe – at least one start before Williams returns. The only reason Bagent didn’t start Monday, Johnson said, was because he wasn’t cleared in enough time to earn the requisite practice reps.
Keenum did and he ran with them. He was the happiest man on the field Monday, and one of the last ones to leave it, celebrating first with his family and then with the Bears fans who stuck around to honor him. Everyone was eating it up.
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”Golly, I’m going to have fun watching the game with [his kids] tomorrow on the couch,” Keenum said postgame to ESPN. “Or probably just Bluey. They probably won’t want to watch it again, they’ll be like, ‘We saw it one time already, Dad.'”
Will there be another time? With Johnson calling the plays, this might not be a life-or-death call. Both Keenum and Bagent can run this offense. Johnson had never called plays with a backup quarterback starting prior to Monday, and you’d never know it. He also managed with the less-than-mobile Keenum, at least compared to his other two QBs.
“The guys up front … have to raise their level of play when you don’t have a Houdini back there necessarily, making guys miss every single play,” Johnson joked. “Case came through. He played lights out. I’ve got a little history with calling plays for someone not so mobile.”
The quarterback who hadn’t played in more than a thousand days played well enough to start twice in a six-day span. Even if it doesn’t happen, he helped deliver a massive victory in Week 3.
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