What Tyson Bagent's Success Says
Tyson Bagent did so well in training camp and preseason he had Bears co-director of player personnel Jeff King, scout Tom Bradway and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy in his corner, along with an awful lot of Bears fans.
Eventually he had Ryan Poles, assistant GM Ian Cunningham and coach Matt Eberflus' eyes as well, and keeping backup P.J. Walker just because he was a veteran couldn't be supported. The Bears traditionally just don't find talented quarterbacks out of football's version of nowhere—or anywhere for that matter—and it's possible their time has come for this.
"I remember when Jeff got done seeing him at Shepherd, he came into my office, raving about this guy whose dad was a pro arm wrestler," Cunningham said. "And it was like, 'who is this guy?' And he was fired up about him.
"And then we were able to see him and Luke was able to see him down in Mobile at the Senior Bowl, so then we got another touch point to him. There was a familiarity there, there was a comfort level with him, and then obviously getting him to the UDFA process and getting excited about that. He just continued to show us every single step of the way he's growing. And we're just excited to have him."
So when decision time came, they were lining up behind the undrafted rookie from Division II Shepherd.
"Jeff King and our area scout Tom Bradway really stood on the table for Tyson and they deserve a lot of credit of that," Cunningham said. "Again, this is just the beginning. We got a long ways to go now, but for this first step, I do want to make sure they get credit for that."
Calculating and prepared, Bagent was so into the moment that he went back and watched old Cleveland Browns Hard Knocks episodes to see how roster cuts are handled so he had an idea what he was to face the last few days. He had put his talent on the line and there was the other issue of Walker's failures. Ultimately, the deciding factor Bagent said was going to be his own commitment.
"I knew it was going to be the discipline I'd be able to bring to the table every day that's going to help me get to that point," he said. "And I really love football. I feel like I can use it as an avenue to motivate my family and other small school guys.
"So I would say it always pretty much made sense that I would do it, and I always felt like I could show everybody that I could below."
Still, it wasn't an easy choice for the Bears to keep an undrafted DII QB while letting go of actually two experienced veterans, because they cut Nathan Peterman as well. They had to give the veterans benefit of the doubt until they decided this could be a future contributor as a backup to Justin Fields.
"It's a delicate balance, for sure," Poles said. "There's some commitments that you do have to give it the full time frame to make it work. I've seen guys struggle early and then something clicks, or if it's the way they're learning or if it's a resource in the building, whatever it is. I've seen it elevate off of that.
"But you gotta have a good feel for when you kinda reach that limit and, 'all right, I gotta move on. Take it and move on.' You just hurt the team if you go too long. I think you just kinda have to own it."
So they owned the decision to go with the kid, and there will be the inevitable comparisons to Brock Purdy, although Bagent has a very long way to go before anyone can seriously see someone who can step in and do what the 49ers rookie backup did last year.
For now, he's just happy to have made the team while the Bears sort out whether they're bringing back Peterman to be the backup or a practice squad third-stringer behind Bagent who provides some veteran guidance.
Either way, it says success for Bears scouting on the college end and definitely failure in terms of their pro scouting end when they are eating $1.51 million this year in dead cap space for signing Walker. Bagent will cost them only $758,333.
"Tyson comes in, he takes it one day at a time and shows consistency," Poles said. "At the end of the day you gotta make decisions that are best for the football team.
"It's not about me and what my decision was. When it plays out, it plays out. That's what it is. I've always felt, and I've actually had conversations with some of my old teammates that played in the league for a long time: They feel you kinda fudge stuff (for the veteran), if you're off and you don't make the right change and everyone kinda sees what's going on on the field, they feel that.
"So we had to make the best decision that was for us, and that's what we did."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
