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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Three plays after being thrust into action against the Minnesota Vikings in place of an injured Justin Fields on Sunday, Tyson Bagent’s regular-season debut teetered on the verge of disaster.
The Chicago Bears’ undrafted free agent quarterback tried to avoid an all-out blitz by side-stepping a free rusher, but upon cutting back to his right, Vikings safety Josh Metellus barreled down on Bagent and forced him to cough up the ball, which Minnesota returned 46 yards for a third-quarter touchdown.
Rookie wide receiver Tyler Scott stood next to Bagent on the Bears sideline as the QB aimed to diagnose what had happened. That moment reinforced to Scott the type of player he had witnessed Bagent develop into since the two made their way to Chicago in the spring.
“He’s always prepared,” Scott said. “That’s one thing I noticed because I sit next to him sometimes on the plane. He’s always watching film, always looking over the book because [you’re] one play away.”
One drive did not define Bagent’s welcome to the NFL. The 23-year-old quarterback marched the Bears 77 yards down field for a touchdown in the fourth quarter and had a chance to lead a game-winning drive at the end, but he underthrew DJ Moore and was intercepted as the Bears lost 19-13.
This week, Bagent will go from running the scout team offense to assuming the role of starting quarterback in place of Fields, who is doubtful to play against the Raiders in Week 7 with a dislocated right thumb. In looking to build on his performance against the Vikings (10-of-14, 83 yards, INT), Bagent will be the fourth Division II quarterback in the past 20 years to start a game, according to Elias.
The Bears’ belief in Bagent was solidified when they elevated him to QB2 on the depth chart over veteran Nathan Peterman earlier this season. His results from less than one-half of an NFL football game don’t say much, but the poise Bagent has shown over the past six months has the Bears excited about his potential
“I think we’ve seen it every day since his rookie minicamp, just his poise,” assistant general manager Ian Cunningham said on Aug. 30. “He’s got this moxie, he has this confidence about him. I remember walking out of the tunnel with him against Tennessee [in the preseason] and it was like, he’s been here before. Right? And he’s showed it. He’s displayed it ever since he’s been here and then in game exposure, his accuracy, decision-making, his poise, we saw what he was able to do with his legs. I think the kid’s got a bright future.”
There weren’t a ton of colleges clamoring to sign the 6-foot-3 quarterback, who led Martinsburg (West Virginia.) High School to back-to-back state championships in 2016 and 2017. Bagent, the son of a 17-time world champion arm wrestler, waited for an offer from West Virginia University that never came. His only Division I opportunities came from Albany and Robert Morris, but their lack of on-field success left a lot to be desired.
“It was weak,” Bagent told ESPN ahead of the draft. “I felt like I had put in so much work and put up such good numbers and had been a proven winner.”
Bagent didn’t let his lack of recruitment deter him from continuing to win. His parents, Travis and Casey, were graduates of Shepherd University and had taken Tyson to watch Rams football games throughout his adolescence. By the time he left Shepherd in 2022, Tyson Bagent held the NCAA record for all-time touchdown passes (159) and became the Division II record-holder for all-time passing yards (17,034) and total touchdowns (171).
That earned him an invite to the Senior Bowl — a rarity for a Division II quarterback — where he was coached by Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.
Bagent went undrafted and signed with the Bears in May. Over the course of the offseason, he rose from inexperienced rookie to No. 2 quarterback, beating out Peterman, a seven-year veteran, and current Cleveland Browns QB PJ Walker.
As he continued to climb the depth chart, Bagent got more opportunities to showcase what he could do.
“I didn’t really notice too much, quite frankly, until I actually caught him on a one-on-one route in Indianapolis,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “I was just running a route and hadn’t really thrown with him much at all, so he kinda indicated, ‘Hey, I’m gonna throw it right at this spot,’ and it was right on the money. He told me where to run the route, how to run it, and he was on point with it. Then you kinda saw what he did in the game as well, kinda really takes notice. When you see a guy really execute like that in a game setting, it’s pretty impressive. Starting at that point and on, I just really took notice of it.”
As the Bears (1-5, 0-2 NFC North) look to climb out of their early-season pitfalls with their starting quarterback facing an unknown timetable for a return, the Bears believe the young QB they grew to know during the preseason can deliver when the stakes are much higher.
“I feel like he just carries himself … different than a normal rookie quarterback, undrafted,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “He honestly surprised me because I didn’t know he was that Division II quarterback that set all them records. When I found out everything started to make sense.”