The Chicago Bears have been through a whirlwind of emotions since Sunday’s loss against the Minnesota Vikings as it relates to the team’s quarterback position.

Starting quarterback Caleb Williams went down with a no-contact injury in the fourth quarter of that game, and got the best news as he’s considered to be week-to-week with a hamstring injury. After he went down, Tyson Bagent entered the game, but doctors diagnosed him with a concussion on Tuesday. That leaves 38-year-old veteran Case Keenum as the lone man standing at quarterback on the team’s 53-man roster.

“That escalated quickly, huh?” Keenum joked with reporters at the podium following Wednesday’s practice, the first day in which Keenum took first-team reps at quarterback since joining the Bears in 2025.

Ben Johnson has a tough challenge in front of him, but he’s not backing down

I’ve said it all week, but this is where having the best quarterback room in the NFL comes in clutch. Head coach Ben Johnson gave some praise to general manager Ryan Poles for his efforts in building the deepest QB room in the league and now the Bears can have comfort in a situation that would be highly uncomfortable for any other team.

That hasn’t stopped those outside the building from expressing some doubt in the Bears ability to win on Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s well known now that Monday will be Johnson’s first regular season game without his starting quarterback as a primary offensive play-caller.

And the doubters are loving the fact that it comes after a week in which Johnson’s offense went from scoring 59 points to scoring just 3 points.

“One of those things that everyone outside the building, I am sure, is writing us off and telling us it can’t be done. And we really relish that,” Johnson said. “So, guys will step up to the plate, guys that maybe we don’t anticipate or expect.”

Bears believe nothing will change on offense regardless of who’s at quarterback

Offensively, the Bears have a lot to clean up after how things looked last Sunday against the Vikings. It was sloppy sloppy work from that unit, and I’m not even talking about the weather conditions at Soldier Field. Penalties, takeaways, and mental mistakes killed the Bears on Sunday. Not Brian Flores’ defense, and not injuries to the QB position.

The good news is, those issues are things that can be improved and that’s the key area the Bears are focusing on this week, regardless of who’s lining up quarterback.

“We’re going to look for plays that we feel like might have a chance to get guys open, create some space in the passing game, running lanes in the running game. It’s up to the supporting cast,” Johnson explained. “It’s not just one player; it never is. We’ve got 10 other guys out there with our quarterback. They’ve got to help champion the cause and carry their weight as well. As far as I’m concerned, not a whole lot of changes from a coaching perspective. We’re going to come up with as good of a game plan as we possibly can, teach it as well as we possibly can.”

One would think the real challenge this week is actually on Philadelphia’s side of things. The Eagles have limited tape on Keenum in this offense to work with and the Bears still have no plans of ruling out Williams, who is working hard to return as soon as possible.

“Don’t have enough information yet,” Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said on Wednesday. “We’re preparing for Chicago’s offense. I don’t think their offense will change a whole lot schematically. So, that’s what we’ll prepare for.”

The biggest challenge for the Eagles isn’t defending the quarterback, it’s defending against the run game that totaled 281 yards on the ground the last time these two teams met in Week 13 last season.

Even without Williams, Fangio said Chicago’s running game isn’t going to change “as much as you’d think” while giving praise to the Bears offensive line and two-back rotation of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, who each totaled 100+ yards in that game.

Preparing for Case Keenum vs. preparing for Caleb Williams

Sticking on Philadelphia’s side of things, you’d have to think Vic Fangio and this defense would still feel a lot better if Caleb Williams remains on the sideline and sits this game out. That’s by no means a knock on Keenum or Bagent, it’s just a fact that it’s different ball game when #18 is on the field.

“He creates a real dilemma for ya,” Fangio explained. “You can have a good down going against the passing play that they have called, then he can bail them out with his scrambling ability and his ability to improvise. That’s what makes him an elite QB.”

While Keenum isn’t elite in that regard, he still has elite qualities. Even at his age, he can still play physically at a starting level while having 80 games of experience against various defenses (including his 3-0 record against a Fangio-led defense), which is an advantage he brings into this game that Williams wouldn’t be able to.

“I feel as good mentally as I’ve ever felt,” Keenum said. “Being able to see things before they happen, having a lot of banked reps. So stuff I’ve done in the past, maybe we’re not getting a ton of reps of it this week, but feel good about if I’m playing to be the one to run those plays. I think as far as operationally goes, I think we can do a lot of things pre-snap, try to get the right play when we can, and I think we can do a lot of fun stuff.”

It’ll be another exciting chess match between a top offensive play-caller and a top defensive play-caller, and one that will come with more wrinkles than what we saw last week. One things for sure, no one is overlooking this Bears offense just because of one different player.