Where Tyson Bagent Best Fits with Bears

Tyson Bagent's story is a Cinderella type of saga but a bit overblown at the moment.

The Bears undrafted rookie, son of a world champion arm wrestler, failed to become the first Division II QB drafted in almost three decades but looked every bit the part ofe an NFL passer in his last Bears effort against the Colts.

Then again, this was operating without a game plan and against second, third- and fourth-team opponents.

But the question for the Bears everyone wants to know about Bagent is whether he could actually be their backup, after coach Matt Eberflus wouldn't rule it out on Saturday night after the game.

"I think everything's open right now," Eberflus said, generating a huge amount of controversy. "I really do."

Moving an undrafted rookie D-II passer up ahead of two veteran backups would seem unlikely upon the face of it. Maybe past one of them would be more like it. After all, he only threw for 76 yards (9 of 10 passes) without a touchdown. Peterman threw for more yards, had more completions and threw a TD pass in the game.

For one, both P.J. Walker and Peterman have far more experience facing the level of player at the level of ball Bagent hasn't seen. Walker has been in 15 games and had seven starts. Peterman 13 games with five starts.

Because Walker has had two small sample sizes, behind the backup line and throwing to backup receivers, doesn't mean he has dropped in skill level or can't pick up the Bears offense. Walker would be playing behind the Bears starting offensive line if he were called upon should Justin Fields be unable to play. He'd be throwing to DJ Moore, who he threw to in three years at Carolina, and other starters. He also would be executing a game plan and not simply running plays like they have done to date.

So thinking his efforts to date would be similar to what they would get if he played in the regular season is a really big assumption to make.

They paid $4.1 million over two years for Walker's services and it's unlikely they'd dump him for one 17-play drive by an undrafted Division II passer playing against subs in the second preseason game.

Unknown quarterbacks go through preseason every year running plays and being impressive but they don't earn backup status.

Teams would rather not risk something as important as the next passer up on someone who is just out of college and lacking draft pedigree.

The name of Anthony Brown comes to mind. He led the NFL in passer rating last preseason for the Baltimore Ravens at 117.7. He completed 35 of 47 for 464 yards in three games with three TD passes. When the season came, he made the roster but only as the third QB.

Jake Browning, Skyler Thompson and Bailey Zappe are other passers with little or no experience in NFL games who were right at the top of the NFL passing statistics for preseason last year and none managed to get higher than third quarterback for their team even though they had excellent preseason production. Zappe was eventually a backup and then starter but only after backup Brian Hoyer and starter Mac Jones suffered injuries.

Right now the passing leader in the NFL for yardage in preseason is Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a fifth-round pick who probably will be a third QB swith the Browns if he makes the team.

This is more where the focus needs to be for Bagent. Making the team should be the goal and not talk about being the backup based on meaningless preseason play.

The debate for the Bears should be whether it's better to have Nathan Peterman on the 53-man roster as third QB or Bagent, and whether it's better to have one of the two or both on the practice squad. Backup is not an issue at this time unless Bears coaches have found Walker is completely lost with learning their offense. So far there definitely hasn't been an indication of this.

The new rule allowing the third QB on a 53-man roster to be a game-day emergency passer is what the Bears need to take into accouunt whether deciding to keep either Peterman or Bagnet or both.

Working on Bagent's behalf is the fact he has had even better statistics than Peterman, playing with a similar quality of teammates. And as Eberflus pointed out, Peterman hasn't played poorly, with a 94.6 passer rating and 14-of-24 passing.

The Bears know what they have in Peterman because he's been in the NFL since 2017. He's a QB who knows their offense from a year working in it, but they have unlimited potential yet in Bagent.

The better option might be keeping Bagent as third-stringer and stashing Peterman as a practice squad passer. They had him there last year. Peterman was on the practice squad last year until the end of November. There wasn't a line forming of teams trying to sign him away from the Bears.

There could be more interest in Bagent, though, based on his production in college and the promise of youth, despite his lack of experience.

Or it's possible the best option is keeping both on the practice squad, paying a bonus or higher amount to Bagent to stay with their practice squad, and then if other teams do start to show interest just add him to the 53-man roster to make sure he doesn't get away from the team.

They can save the roster spot that way.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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