Chicago Bears Week 10 Loser No. 2: Tyson Bagent
This is now three weeks in a row that Tyson Bagent is on the losers list. One might say that he is 2-2 as a quarterback in the NFL and has more wins than Justin Fields this season. While that is a great point, he has not been the one to put the Bears in a position to win games, especially over the last two games.
To be fair, the game plan against the Panthers was for Bagent to get rid of the football quickly and hit the easy checkdowns. He did that, and he did not have any turnovers after having three against the Saints last week. Unfortunately, that handicapped the Bears offense and it almost cost them the game.
Bagent continues to show that he is a very quality backup quarterback, but clearly not a starter for anything more than a few games. The idea of the way he plays is nice because it was a breath of fresh air from Fields holding the ball too long and taking sacks. The problem is there is no explosiveness from the offense with Bagent at the helm. He just cannot hit the throws downfield and over the games he has opted for fewer and fewer deep shots because he does not have confidence in hitting those throws.
Bagent has made many great plays over these last four games including some great third-down throws and timely scrambles. Still, for the offense to only muster up 295 total yards of offense against a Panthers team missing Brian Burns, Shaq Thompson, and C.J. Henderson, it was clearly a rough outing.
Most fans will agree that Justin Fields needs to be back in the offense for their next game against the Lions. It is obvious how much more open and explosive the offense is with his arm talent and running ability. Bagent just cannot threaten a defense the way Fields can, and his outing against the Panthers was a culmination of his shortcomings. Hopefully, they continue to develop him into a quality backup and a guy who can be trusted to come in and keep the team competitive if needed.