New Twist to an Old Bears Tradition

When former Shepherd QB Tyson Bagent takes the field against the Los Angeles Raiders Sunday, it marks another chapter in the not-so-illustrious history of Bears quarterbacks.

The Bears may have recorded the Super Bowl Shuffle but long before that they started the QB Shuffle and they continue to perfect it.

Always desperate for a passer since Jim McMahon won a Super Bowl—and even then sometimes—Bagent will be the franchise's first Division II starting quarterback.

DII began in 1973 when the NCAA designated three divisions, but Bagent is actually the first player to start for the Bears at quarterback from a school not currently in D-I since Dave Krieg played for them in 1996, after an injury to Erik Kramer.

Krieg had played at tiny Milton College, in Milton, Wis., a Division III school that went out of business in 1982. Before that, you had to back to Keith Molesworth from Monmouth College, who started three games in 1934.

Bagent is the first undrafted QB to start for the Bears since Chase Daniel in 2019 and first DII QB to start in the NFL since Jon Kitna (Central Washington) and Todd Bouman (St. Cloud State) in 2010.

Not So Proud Tradition

The Bears backup quarterback is always the most popular guy in town because he hasn't played enough to anger anyone, but with Bagent they're going in an entirely new direction.

The Bears once had Sid Luckman as starter in the T-formation and he became the model, the type of passer everyone wanted in the NFL. When Luckman's playing time ended in 1950, the Bears began searching for a replacement. They're still searching.

Even when they found someone worthy in Jim McMahon, he had this slight flaw. He couldn't keep from being injured. Whether it was ruptured kidneys, shoulder injuries, hamstrings or ribs, they almost needed to put him in a bubble to keep him healthy. He once slipped on ice behind the old Halas Hall and aggravated a hamstring injury he had been nursing along so that he could be ready to play in the 1987 playoffs.

So when the Bears faced the Redskins and lost on a punt return touchdown by Darrell Green, McMahon was hobbling along all day trying to elude Dexter Manley.

What's amazing is he was always hurt but played at a time when they had probably their best offensive line since the 1940s.

In my youth, the Bears brought in Jack Concannon. He came to Chicago when they traded away Da Tight end, Mike Ditka, after he had said George Halas was tossing around nickels like they were manhole covers.

The Bears would see a quarterback now, my father promised. At the same time, Eagles fans were saying "good riddance" and it soon became apparent why they traded him after only three starts and three wins for mediocre Philadelphia teams. A 55.6 career passer rating and more interceptions in each of his five seasons than touchdown passes had everyone wishing they had Ditka, the tight end, back or that the Bill Wade era hadn't ended.

Pretty soon it was Larry Rakestraw playing and then Bears fans knew the real depths of QB play. He had a 40.7 passer rating for 13 games played, four starts and four losses.

And So It Began...

They have shuttled through two or three passers at a time each year since Luckman's era. The next guy up is always going to be the one to do it.

"Rex is our quarterback," Lovie Smith so famously said and repeated in 2007, after they'd been to the Super Bowl and watched Grossman throw the deciding pick-6 to Kelvin Hayden. Then, not long after, it was Brian Griese as quarterback ticking off offensive coordinator Ron Turner by saying he had called the plays himself on a winning drive against the Eagles.

Even when they became a power in the 1980s, they used five starting QBs in 1984 under Ditka Da Coach. When Steve Fuller proved as fragile as McMahon, they once wound up starting pickup Greg Landry, who was old enough to be a coach and soon was. They actually used six QBs that year as Ditka couldn't contain himself over Rusty Lisch's incompetence and threw Walter Payton in at QB in a wildcat offense against Green Bay even before anyone invented wildcat offense.

Ditka went to the QB shuffle again in 1986 when he signed Doug Flutie. That seemed fine until postseason.

Complete Turnover

It's pretty difficult to not overlap with at least some personnel at a position like quarterback from year to year, but they actually went from one trio in Erik Kramer-Steve Stenstrom-Moses Moreno to three entirely different QBs starting games the next year in 1999 under Dick Jauron: Shane Matthews, Cade McNown and Jim Miller.

When drafting or trading for a QB didn't work, they went out and got QBs in Canada, like Henry Burris and Flutie. They had a former Cardinals organization baseball pitcher in Chad Hutchinson and a slash, in Kordell Stewart.

None of it has worked.

The big question facing the Bears Sunday is whether the ball can suddenly start coming out in time, and if it makes a difference.

If they succeed on offense with a different QB, one who isn't holding the ball too long or who doesn't present the threat of scrambling for big yardage, is it a sign Justin Fields has simply failed?

Would it be time to move on?

For now, though, after all these years, what can it hurt starting a DII passer who played at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W. Virginia, and went undrafted?

Bears Starting Quarterbacks

Since Super Bowl XX win

1986: Mike Tomczak (7 games), Jim McMahon (6), Steve Fuller (2), Doug Flutie (1)

1987: Tomczak (6), McMahon (6), Mike Hohensee (2), Steve Bradley (1)

1988: McMahon (9), Tomczak (5), Jim Harbaugh (2)

1989: Tomzak (11), Harbaugh (5)

1990: Harbaugh (14), Tomczak (2)

1991: Harbaugh (16)

1992: Harbaugh (13), Peter Tom Willis (2), Will Furrer (1)

1993: Harbaugh (15) Willis (1)

1994: Steve Walsh (11), Erik Kramer (5)

1995: Kramer (16)

1996: Dave Krieg (12), Kramer (4)

1997: Kramer (13), Rick Mirer (3)

1998: Kramer (8), Steve Stenstrom (7), Moses Moreno (1)

1999: Shane Matthews (7), Cade McNown (6), Jim Miller (3)

2000: McNown (9), Matthews (5), Miller (2)

2001: Miller (13), Matthews (3)

2002: Miller (8), Chris Chandler (7), Henry Burris (1)

2003: Kordell Stewart (7), Chandler (6), Rex Grossman (3)

2004: Craig Krenzel (5), Chad Hutchinson (5), Jonathan Quinn (3), Grossman (3)

2005: Kyle Orton (15), Grossman (1)

2006: Grossman (16)

2007: Grossman (7), Brian Griese (6), Orton (3)

2008: Orton (15), Grossman (1)

2009: Jay Cutler (16)

2010: Cutler (15), Todd Collins (1)

2011: Cutler (10), Caleb Hanie (4), Josh McCown (2)

2012: Cutler (15), Jason Campbell (1)

2013: Cutler (11), McCown (5)

2014: Cutler (15), Jimmy Clausen (1)

2015: Cutler (15), Clausen (1)

2016: Matt Barkley (6), Cutler (5), Brian Hoyer (5)

2017: Mitchell Trubisky (12), Mike Glennon (4)

2018: Trubisky (14), Chase Daniel (2)

2019: Trubisky (15), Daniel (1)

2020: Trubisky (9), Nick Foles (7)

2021: Justin Fields (10), Andy Dalton (6), Foles (1)

2022: Fields (15), Trevor Siemian (1), Nathan Peterman (1)

2023: Fields (6), Tyson Bagent*

*Making first start Oct. 22.

Best Bears QB Win Percentage

(Super Bowl era, 16 starts or more)

Jim McMahon 49-17 .742

Mike Tomczak 34-23 .676

Mike Phipps 14-7 .667

Kyle Orton 21-12 .636

Rex Grossman 35-21 .600

Mitchell Trubisky 29-23 .558

Jim Miller 15-12 .556

Jim Harbaugh 35-31 .530

Worst Bears QB Win Percentage

(Super Bowl era, 16 starts or more)

Justin Fields 6-25 .194

Cade McNown 3-12 .200

Gary Huff 6-17 .227

Bobby Douglass 12-25 .329

Vince Evans 12-20 .375

Erik Kramer 18-28 .391

Jack Concannon 7-9 .438

Bob Avellini 23-28 .451

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