Bear Digest

Short stay on inactive list ends for Bears QB Case Keenum

The Bears activated QB Case Keenum to practice starting Wednesday just a day after he was put on the inactive list.
Gene Chamberlain|
Case Keenum will be active and ready for the start of camp.
Case Keenum will be active and ready for the start of camp. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo / Chicago Bears Video

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That didn't take long at all for Case Keenum to be cleared for play.

A day after the Bears put the veteran backup on the active/non-football injury list, they pulled him off of it and he is clear to practice Wednesday barring a setback with his situation.

Keenum went on the list Saturday with cornerback Jaylon Johnson, wide receiver Jahdae Walker and running back Ian Wheeler. The other three remain on the list.

This allows Keenum, a 12-year veteran, to battle with third-year QB Tyson Bagent for the backup quarterback job behind Caleb Williams.

"That's how we explained it to Tyson," coach Ben Johnson said at minicamp. "We're going to continue to mix up the reps over the course of the preseason and then at some point in training camp we'll make a decision with who has earned that No. 2 job and we'll go with it. But for right now, we’ve got a battle."

It doesn't sound like it will be a heated battle with all of the nice compliments being tossed around. Keenum had said Bagent looked to him like a player who would have a long NFL career.
“For anybody to say that is pretty sweet and pretty cool," Bagent said. "And it means a lot. I mean, this is my life's work. So it does mean a lot.

"But coming from somebody like him it means a little bit more."

Keenum has had four starts in the last five seasons and his teams won three. Houston went 1-1 in 2023 when he started and Cleveland was 2-0 in 2021 in starts.

He'll no doubt be ready for the competition based on how he handled similar situations in the past.

"I mean I've competed my whole life, you know?" Keenum said. "I show up everyday and hope my locker is not cleaned out, man. That's how I treat every day. I compete against myself, compete against the guys in that room. I compete against the defense that we're playing that day, today and then every day. I've competed my whole life, so, you know, I've got a knack of sticking around and being ready to go when my name is called, no matter when that is or how that is."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.