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Bears quietly found hidden value in overlooked quarterback role

Case Keenum may never take meaningful snaps for Chicago, but his experience gives the Bears something most teams do not have behind a young quarterback room.
ByParker Hurley|
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This is the deepest we have seen the Chicago Bears roster in some time. They have depth at each position, and even at the quarterback spot, they have arguably one of the best third-string options in the NFL. Not many players can beat the value of Case Keenum. 

Chicago Bears third string quarterback is a secret weapon 

Keenum has not started in the NFL since 2023. However, he does have 66 career starts, 2,33 regular seasons passing attempts, and two career playoff starts with 88 playoff attempts. So, he knows the position and is experienced. This is valuable in a third-string player. 

The Bears quarterback room is young. Caleb Williams is going into an offseason with the same head coach for the first time in his career, and he will have yet another new offensive coordinator. Tyson Bagent has four career starts and 149 passing attempts. Those two have earned being the starter and backup, but both are inexperienced. Being able to use the third quarterback spot on someone like Keenum is essentially having a quarterback coach in the room. The difference is that Keenum gets to practice with the team.

The value of a third quarterback has been shown to be useful as well. We saw that the Indianapolis Colts had to drag Phillip Rivers out of retirement because they got so thin at quarterback. The argument was that Rivers had been coaching, so his head was still in the game, and that he knew the Shane Steichen offense from their time together in Los Angeles.

For Keenum, he might not have the resume of Rivers, but he is less separated from the game, younger, he is essentially coaching the exact offense that he would run to the starting quarterback, and he has been working with the head coach every day. In a worst-case scenario, they have a starting quarterback who knows the offense and could drag them out of a bad spot. In the best case, Keenum is a mental buffer between the head coach and quarterback and helps the room mature. 

Keenum will not get much credit for the Bears success, but he is an underrated reason why the roster seems strong from the bottom up.

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