Windy City Gridiron
Man does it feel good to have Chicago Bears football back, and it equally feels good to be back to grading some QB film. The Bears hosted the Miami Dolphins last Sunday as each team played one another to a 24-24 draw. It was our first look at the 2025 rookie class, and most importantly (for me at least) the first look at our QB room, sans Caleb Williams, in 2025. So let’s take a dive, breakdown a few plays and figure out what we learned from week 1 of preseason!
Tyson had an up and down afternoon getting the bulk of the snaps between the 3 QB’s. He took every snap in the 1st half. He started his afternoon with back-to-back 3 and outs including 2 throws that were badly placed, throws that if were on target may have resulted in first downs. He followed up those 3 and outs nicely, however, by engineering a long touchdown drive, which was capped by a GREAT touchdown throw to Maurice Alexander in the back of the endzone threading some defenders between. His interception was deemed not Turnover Worthy in my grading, however it was graded as a “Poor” throw due to the quality of coverage, decision to throw into that coverage, and his tardiness on throwing a timing route which caused the pass to be broken up, and eventually picked. He also took a bad sack 2 plays before his touchdown throw. His line gave him 3.23s before he reacted to pressure, and he had a chance for an easy touchdown pass if he kept his eyes downfield, instead of reacting to backside pressure prematurely.
Bagent’s touchdown throw stands out as his best throw of the day. His read is simple, it’s essentially a goal line scissors concept, and Bagent’s job is to read how the Safety reacts after the receivers cross one another and/or are handed off to defenders. Bagent reads this very well with the Safety over-committing to the route of #81 Durham Smythe, Bagent takes advantage of this loosing a ball with great anticipation (mostly out of necessity, Braxton Jones gets depantsed on his rep. With the Safety’s back to the ball Bagent rips a throw over two defenders and Alexander makes a great catch in the back of the endzone for the score.
Bagent’s final throw on the afternoon would be his worst. A 2 minute situation on a 1st down, Ben Johnson dials up a Levels concept. And it really seems like he pre-determines his throw, and even doing so he is late in getting the ball out. Ideally on In routes you want the ball out of your hands before the WR finishes his break if that is your first read. This allows the defender a minimal chance to break on the WR and make a play on the ball. Bagent is slow to the trigger here, not only allowing the DB to make up...
