The Chicago Bears have paid their quarterback. No, not Caleb Williams.
Backup quarterback Tyson Bagent and the Bears agreed to terms Wednesday on a two-year, $10 million extension through the 2027 season, according to reports. Bagent was due to enter the final year of his contract in 2025 and was eligible to sign an extension before playing his third season as a former undrafted free agent.
Bagent’s new deal, which could be worth up to $16 million with incentives, will kick in after the coming year, keeping him in Chicago through the 2027 season.
Williams, the former No. 1 overall pick, will play his second season this year. He won’t be eligible to sign an extension until early 2027, after his third season ends.
Tyson Bagent stats, history
The Bears originally signed Bagent after the 2023 NFL Draft.
The West Virginia native set multiple Division II college football records during his career at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, including most career passing yards (17,034) and most career touchdown passes (159). He won the Harlon Hill Trophy – the Division II version of the Heisman Trophy – in 2021.
Bagent was coming off of the stronger of his two preseason outings prior to getting his extension. He completed 13 of his 22 pass attempts for 196 yards and a touchdown in the Bears’ win over the Buffalo Bills.
Through two seasons as the Bears’ backup, Bagent has played in nine games and started four of them – all four of which came in 2023. He has a career completion rate of 66.2% with 870 career passing yards, three touchdowns and six interceptions.
Bagent recently received glowing praise from the Bears’ current regime: head coach Ben Johnson – ‘He’s been phenomenal … He’s smart as a whip.’ – and general manager Ryan Poles – ‘There isn’t a harder worker on this football team than Tyson Bagent.’ Perhaps his looming extension should’ve been obvious.
But Bagent’s new deal with the Bears is something of an outlier in the landscape of NFL backups. Here’s why:
Why Tyson Bagent’s contract extension is strange
For starters, Bagent’s two-year, $10 million deal makes him one of the highest-paid backup quarterbacks in the NFL.
He’s tied for the seventh-highest-paid by average annual value (AAV), to be exact – Anthony Richardson Sr. (still on rookie deal), Marcus Mariota, Jacoby Brissett, Zach Wilson, Jarrett Stidham, Tyrod Taylor are the only ones ahead of him.
Houston Texans backup Davis Mills’ one-year, $5 million deal matches Bagent’s.
Overall, Bagent’s extension’s AAV makes him the 39th-highest-paid quarterback overall in the league. He’s actually set to make more money than Cleveland Browns veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, who the team just named as its Week 1 starter earlier this week, and Denver Broncos starter Bo Nix (though Nix is on his rookie deal).
While the value alone on Bagent’s new contract is a (literal) big deal, there’s one other oddity about the Bears’ move.
Bagent is one of only two current backup quarterbacks – backup, in this case, meaning No. 2 on the depth chart – in the NFL to receive an extension before the final season of his previous contract. Almost every other No. 2 quarterback in the league was either a pending free agent or an unrestricted free agent when they signed their current deal.
Outside of Bagent, Mills is the only other current backup quarterback to receive an extension before his previous contract was up. Mills’ deal with Houston was only for one year and worth $5 million, making Bagent the only current backup quarterback to sign a multi-year extension before his current contract ended.
The Bears clearly like having Bagent around, and they showed it by making a unique personnel decision Wednesday.