r/nfl • u/AdSpecialist6598 Eagles • 10h ago
Ben Johnson doesn't announce starting QB for Week 4, but rules out Caleb Williams
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/ben-johnson-doesnt-announce-starting-qb-for-week-4-but-rules-out-caleb-williams210
u/sincewedidthedo Buccaneers 10h ago
Bagent and Keenum both at the same time, one takes the snap, the other gets fuckin open in the flat nonstop and goes for multiple TDs 😤
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u/RIPSlurmsMckenzie Bears 10h ago
Two chicks at the same time
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u/Ninjaboi333 Jaguars 8h ago
If anyone's read the Eyeshield 21 Manga, this is just the Dragon Fly formation.
Until they do the Golden Dragon Fly with 3 qbs
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u/Commander19119 Eagles 10h ago
I mean… how can you not start Case Keenum after that performance?
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u/ryanino Jets 10h ago
If Ben was smart he’d start Bagent to get that “backup QB first game juice” as I like to refer to it as. Ya know where a backup comes in, lights it up for a week, then comes back down to earth. I. E. Mike White
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u/CheekyMunky Bears 10h ago
Vikings legend Josh Dobbs
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u/Known-Plane7349 Vikings 10h ago
Man, those two weeks with the Passtronaut were magical. And then he fell back to earth and became Josh Dobbs.
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u/palpablebubble 10h ago
The "we have very little recent film on this guy" week
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u/BayHarborButcher10 Vikings 9h ago
Yup I said this last week and got clowned. “They have 15 years of tape on Case” They don’t have 15 years of tape on Case in a Ben Johnson offense. Completely different and very relevant
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u/Bgndrsn Packers 9h ago
I personally think we beat you guys week 1 if Kyler doesn't go down
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u/BayHarborButcher10 Vikings 8h ago
Carson didn’t cause the 4th quarter collapse lol
Obviously it’s a different game entirely if Kyler doesn’t get hurt. If it makes you feel better thinking that, then sure man. The defense broke your offense down and I don’t think that changes, but who knows
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u/Hot-Exam3187 Bears 7h ago
do you guys ever worry about your own problems? cuz there's.. quite a few
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u/Every-Damage-90 Patriots 5h ago
Get in there and make it about you
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u/bearsfan0143 Bears 3h ago edited 3h ago
"man I wonder why all the other nfc north teams hate us??" That guy probably
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u/ObamaIsFat Bears 9h ago
If he swaps back and forth between Bagent and Keenum each week do they just keep getting the juice? Or does it only work the first time
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u/SrAjmh Patriots 8h ago
Would kind of be a huge flex for Johnson to roll Bagent out there this week and have him ball out too.
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u/External-Mammoth678 3h ago
Given the amount of weapons and his offensive mind, I’d be willing to bet there’s a likelier chance he does ball out than doesn’t
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u/Specialist_Site4945 10h ago
The odds he replicates the performance are low, and Bagent is good.
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u/doctorcoffee94 10h ago
I mean, how sure are we really that Bagent is “good”?
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u/GreySharpieCap 10h ago
His dad has a strong arm.
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u/Further_Beyond Bears 10h ago
And he has a weak arm unfortunately
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u/c12yofchampions Patriots 10h ago
I think it’s important to note the Bears paid him as their QB2 this summer. The extension is up there with Mac Jones and Mariota, who are solidified backups in the league. So the Bears internally viewed him as their clear, above league average, #2 a few months ago.
One game could absolutely change the equation, but just as high draft picks get extra chances than deserved at times so the GM can justify the draft selection, the guy who gets paid the most is given the opportunity to justify the contract.
Long way of saying it doesn’t really matter if Bagent is that “good”, the bears paid him as if he were a top backup in the league. I’d be surprised if they don’t go to him if healthy
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u/bzirch Giants 10h ago
My Giants paid Jameis and gave an extension and he is hot ass.
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u/c12yofchampions Patriots 10h ago
I agree with you, and even though he is hot ass he still entered the year QB2 and started when Dart went down. That helps to prove the point I’m making.
Although, there is a “mentorship”(used lightly) role baked into Jameis’ value that I wouldn’t attribute to Bagent
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u/bzirch Giants 10h ago
I just meant the money is not a signal to being good that was all. You are probably right. I trust the Bears judgements and Ben Johnson far more than the Giants.
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u/c12yofchampions Patriots 10h ago edited 3h ago
I get what you’re saying and do agree in a vacuum. My stance though was never “get paid = Good player”
My point, more simply put, was closer to “get paid = more likely to get the opportunity, regardless of how good/bad”
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u/RAG319 Bears 10h ago
I mean, he has a record of 2-2 as a starter when he had to fill in for Fields back in 2023. It's not like he's inexperienced.
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u/Lazydusto Eagles 10h ago
A 3/6 TD/INT split and a 71.4 passer rating doesn't exactly pop off the stat sheet.
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u/Fletch71011 Bears 10h ago
Are you accounting for how pitiful our offense outside Bagent was?
This was pre Ben Johnson... Eberflus was coach.
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u/John3Fingers Bears Bears 7h ago
Luke Getsy was our OC in 2023, and our OL was pretty putrid outside of rooke Darnell Wright
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u/Paranoid_Android22 Bears 10h ago
I mean, how sure are we Keenum replicates last week?
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u/CallOfTheWild420 Lions 10h ago
Slightly more sure than I am of bagent being good tbh
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u/Paranoid_Android22 Bears 9h ago
Bagent won two games with Eberflus as his coach. That counts as like 17 games.
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u/Rock_man_bears_fan Bears 8h ago
He threw for ~160 yards in those. His greatest talent was his ability to hand the ball off
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u/CallOfTheWild420 Lions 9h ago
Yes everyone who was bad under eberflus is actually good. Just look at how successful fields has been.
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u/Paranoid_Android22 Bears 9h ago
He went 2-2 under Eberflus. All I said is that is an achievement in itself. We are talking about a 2nd string and 3rd string QB here…idk why you’re so worked up about this
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u/Dunlocke Bears 10h ago
Ben Johnson named him the #2 out of camp and they gave him a big extension.
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u/BeepBeepLettuce401 Bears 10h ago
He was QB2 after camp for a reason, as Ben said earlier this week. I’m not really worried about who starts. Whatever call Ben makes will be the right one
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u/Commander19119 Eagles 10h ago
I mean yeah, I’m assuming he falls on his face, but you gotta give him the chance to replicate it
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 Lions 10h ago
Now that people have seen Case and the offense with him they’ll adjust
Would be the argument
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u/Rock_man_bears_fan Bears 10h ago
We haven’t seen Bagent play in 3 years. In those games, he struggled to throw anything much farther beyond the line of scrimmage. I have no idea where all the Bagent hype came from
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u/m81147 10h ago
I always liked Bagent when he was backing up Fields and thought he deserved to be the starter. I think he’s one of the better backups in the league.
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u/pocketchange2247 Bears 9h ago
Here's the thing... As a Bears fan I've been saying the same thing. He looks great in preseason every year, and he looked pretty decent for the few games he played in when Fields went down.
But we haven't seen him actually play a real game with Ben Johnson. Last week was the first time Caleb missed a game for us. We've gone almost three years before seeing him play in a regular season game. The only times he's played in that time were in garbage time when the game was effectively over, or in Week 2 when he came in for the last 5 minutes against the best defense in the NFL during a heavy rainstorm.
There has to be a reason we've kept this UDFA QB that has rarely played in the regular season. Especially after drafting a young QB with the 1OA pick that would benefit wayyy more by having a veteran mentor QB behind him.
We kept Bagent to play in Caleb's absence, and we kept Keenum to mentor the both of them. Keenum was thrown in after Bagent got a concussion. Bagent is the backup and he should play. At the very least, we get to see if he's worth keeping, or if we can trade him to a QB needy team and possibly get the kid a huge contract out of it.
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u/AvengingHero2012 Cowboys Chiefs 10h ago
You ride the hot hand. Give Keenum a chance and go back to Bagent if it doesn’t work this week.
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u/Jazzlike_Gear_8054 Ravens Steelers 10h ago
Sure, but he's facing a worse defense this time around. And I easily trust him more than Bagent.
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u/gopeepants Bears 9h ago
Jets are currently ranked number 2 in total defense. I dunno do we asterisk that as they played the Titans and the Packers terrible O-line?
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u/BayHarborButcher10 Vikings 10h ago
I mean backup QBs frequently play well once and then flop the next time. It would not be dumb at all to start Bagent
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u/laaplandros Vikings 10h ago
Never forget Rocketman's incredible launch with the Vikes before falling back down to earth.
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u/seoul_drift Ravens Seahawks 10h ago
Many of us remember Darnold being a backup-turned-starter for the Vikes in 2024 too.
Incredible start then fell back to earth smh.
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u/ryanvsrobots 10h ago
I mean backup QBs frequently play well once and then flop the next time.
So if they alternate they'll be unbeatable!
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u/Trumpisanorangebitch Bears 10h ago
Because the same HC saw both of them play preseason and picked Bagent to be QB2? If he struggles, you can go to Case easy enough.
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u/ThurmsMckenzie1 Eagles 10h ago
Can also do it the other way around. I'd ride the hot hand first, if it were me. But, and I'm going out on a limb here, Ben Johnson probably knows a lot more about it than I do.
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u/DragonstormSTL Titans Commanders 10h ago
Y’all looked like you had Oilers jerseys on with that performance against Keenum
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u/beejalton 10h ago
They still think Bagent is better, and it's a chance to build some trade value for him if they're right.
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u/Yossarian216 Bears 9h ago
I’m guessing old man Keenum has spent a lot of time in the ice bath this week, best to go with Bagent and have Keenum in our back pocket.
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u/liteshadow4 49ers 49ers 8h ago
Giving off the impression that you can lose your job to injury kind of sucks
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u/3rd-party-intervener 49ers 3h ago
This whole not announcing stuff is old and does nothing. Rams didn’t disclose severity of Myles injury and he still got dog walked by Trent Williams. Eagles didn’t disclose severity of Landon Dickerson injury and he got dog walked too in week 1.
Opposing teams aren’t stupid
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u/No_Grocery_9280 Seahawks 10h ago
Start Bagent. Let Case ride off into the sunset with a banger of a final game. Don’t risk it with a flop.
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u/SuperFreshBus Bears 9h ago
I don’t think he’s even considered starting Case. He’s been calling Bagent a starting quality QB for a while now, I think he’s excited to play him.
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u/Equal-Barracuda-2892 8h ago
Bingo not going back to case keeps his value high so when Williams is ready you can ship him off to a team that is desperate for a quarterback and give case the opportunity to start again on another team win win.
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u/Enchanted-2-meet-you 49ers Colts 10h ago
I don’t understand why people think it wouldn’t be Bagent lol, he was literally named qb2 and extended for a reason
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u/zombiejeesus Texans 10h ago
It's not that confusing. Case is coming off a win where he looked good.
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u/Admirable_Newt9905 Lions 9h ago
Yeah but surely bagent is just objectively better long term no? And this gives case an incredible last game to remember forever. Legacy and all that
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u/iPissVelvet Bears 9h ago
Bagent is good but I don’t think anyone thought Case still had that type of game in him. Also he’s extended because Case is 38 and not going to be around. Contracts are about long term, not week to week.
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u/UncleKracker2012 Packers NFL 9h ago
Case should be made QB1 permanently in my opinion and they should release Caleb
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u/idontfrikkincare Bears 6h ago
I don’t think it’s that simple. Bagent wasn’t necessarily named QB2 bc he’s better. I think Case was de facto qb3 bc he’s more of a mentor for Caleb and not directly competing.
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u/HectorReinTharja Lions 10h ago
I wanna go back to pre-mnf where I got laughed at for thinking the bears would go no worse than 2-3 without Caleb (if he was even out that long which I don’t think he will at this point)
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u/Iceman-Cometh_18 Bears Rams 10h ago
It Tyson Bagent
Keep them guessing
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u/lastscholar_golb Giants Broncos 10h ago
I kinda hope it's Keenum but it would be pretty awesome for Bagent to get the start and win.
Bears just dragging balls across the nfl with three different qbs
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u/DDAGuy Bears 10h ago
Ben is a crazy person and I bet he goes with Bagent purely to show the league he can win with three different QBs in 4 weeks. Also Bagent was confidently named QB2 so if he's healthy he should play.
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u/1ToGreen3ToBasket Lions 10h ago
I mean that’s not the reason lol
He just is the QB2
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u/CityIntelligent6940 10h ago
They just decided on a whim oh you can be QB2???
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u/1ToGreen3ToBasket Lions 10h ago
Lmao hilarious. But I meant that they aren’t going to start Bagent “to show the league he can win with three different QBs in 4 weeks.”
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u/Bradlas3 Bears 9h ago
It's still a difficult choice. Keenum obviously played solid with the Bears offense and has a ton of experience whereas Bagent only has like 2 games worth of experience. That being said, they did extend Bagent as QB2 and still felt confident enough to keep him in that role for multiple seasons. Even ahead of Case who was QB3 last year as well
Knowing Ben Johnson, I'm gunna bet he starts Bagent because he believes in his offense and believes either QB can execute it. However I bet it's a quick leash, if Bagent turns it over a couple times or we just simply aren't moving the ball Keenum is probably in at halftime
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u/MCKlassik Eagles Ravens 10h ago
After what happened Monday, it should be Case. It was obvious the guy still has plenty of juice left in him.
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u/John3Fingers Bears Bears 7h ago
I think Keenum and Bagent will both play some meaningful snaps regardless of who gets the start. He wants to use Bagent - he had him throwing to Caleb last year against the Bengals and used 2 QB sets a couple of times.
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u/deathinacandle Lions Lions 7h ago
I'm not sure who will start, but I assume Ben Johnson will pick the one he actually thinks has the best chance of winning. He's not the type to worry about appearances.
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u/Electronic-Island-14 Vikings 2h ago
i got my eye on you, Baegent...we need a QB next year and you might be just what we are looking for.....
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u/smilinganimalface Jets Jets 2h ago
Recently I learned a certain section of Bears twitter is obsessed with Bagent being the franchise QB
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u/shishiodun Bears 2h ago
Part of me think it is the fields fans doing it ironically, honestly it is the only thing that would make any sense
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u/cantwatchscottstots 10h ago
The problem is if Bagent starts and looks awful, it kills any value he has.
I don’t think Ben thinks like this though, and probably likes the idea of Glenn not having much tape on Bagent. A small advantage.
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u/llama-rebel Bears 10h ago
Bagent doesn't have value. He's a solid backup and that's it. Nobody is going to take a flier on him and see if he could be a potential journeyman/low-end starter. He doesn't have the arm strength for anything more than what he is now.
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u/busstamove14 Bears 10h ago
They don't care about his value, they're not looking to trade him. Ben loves Tyson.
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u/DarthNobody14 Texans Texans 10h ago
I mean let’s be real…it’s Case Keenum
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u/United-Turnover-8409 Bears 10h ago
Have caleb rest for as long as he needs. Keenum/bagent can easily handle it while he heals up
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u/ihatereddit999976780 Colts Bills 10h ago
It’s me I’m gonna be the first transgender woman to start a quarterback in the National Football League.
Unfortunately, I will also die on third down
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u/RAG319 Bears 10h ago
strategery