Inside the Bears' packed QBs room, where it's all about supporting Caleb Williams (2024)

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears’ quarterbacks room is packed. It’s not because of the “Hard Knocks” cameras but the result of everything the team changed and did in the offseason.

Coach Matt Eberflus still has a seat in the back of the room. New quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron have prominent roles, of course.

But then there are three more coaches: passing game coordinator Thomas Brown and offensive assistants Ryan Griffin and Robbie Picazo. Griffin, a former quarterback, spent parts of eight seasons in the NFL, including being Tom Brady’s teammate with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

There are also four quarterbacks: No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, second-year backup Tyson Bagent, six-year veteran Brett Rypien and undrafted rookie Austin Reed.

“It’s definitely a different feel,” Rypien said. “But it’s great to have so many voices in there.”

Everyone adds something to the mix. That’s kind of the point when it comes to Williams’ development and more. The other three quarterbacks have their places. They have their roles, input, experiences and connections to Williams.

“He’s great; he’s real,” Bagent said. “People, a lot of the media, had whatever they wanted to say about him before he got here. Thankfully, I don’t really look into much of that, but since being in front of him, he’s just been very cool, very likable, very positive.

“We’re just in this thing together, figuring it out as we go. And I think he’s definitely (taken) initiative to get an understanding of the guys he’s around and just building that camaraderie, which is all you can ask at this point, really — to have the team just be as one and mesh as good as we can before the season starts.”

The up-and-coming backup

Bagent passed his friend Derek Gallagher’s test this offseason: the one-mile burpee broad jump. The starting point was his buddy’s backyard. They went down the street to the river and back.

“There are always some people looking at us funny,” Bagent said.

It was the fourth consecutive time they celebrated Gallagher’s birthday with a ridiculous workout. But Bagent did plenty more this offseason. He looks physically different from last season, when he was a rookie coming out of Division II Shepherd. He’s bigger and stronger.

“I always just take a lot of pride in my physical shape,” he said. “This is the most time off I’ve had — ever. So I just honed in on that. I’ve been on the carnivore diet, just eating mostly meat and eggs and fruit. I feel great. I think that it showed in the ‘bod pod’ with my body fat percentage and how I’m moving around. I feel bigger, faster and stronger.”

Bagent said he feels that added strength in his throws. He has pushed the ball downfield in camp. But Bagent also knows what he’s doing. Waldron’s offense is from the same tree as Luke Getsy’s.

“Shane’s done a great job installing everything,” Bagent said. “The QB room is great, very helpful. We’ve got young guys, but then we got a dude like Brett Rypien, who’s come in and been like that Nate Peterman guy for me. Another player-coach who has a deep understanding of the game and has been around a while.”

Darnell Mooney gets the first down. Tyson Bagent is fired up. The Bears secure the win.#CARvsCHI on Prime Video
Also available on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/GCrDC733Fm

— NFL (@NFL) November 10, 2023

Last year, Bagent beat out veteran P.J. Walker to back up Justin Fields. The Bears then went 2-2 in his four starts when Fields was injured. Bagent said “being thrown in the fire” was helpful.

“I think I just showed that I can be a game manager while also I can make pretty significant plays while I’m out there,” Bagent said. “I showed I have command of the huddle.”

This year, Bagent opened camp as the No. 2 behind Williams.

“Coming into this year, it’s just feeling so much more comfortable,” Bagent said. “I can’t imagine what it would feel like if these were my first reps at the No. 2 getting thrown in. And I think, more than anything, I just gained a lot of people’s trust. It’s just them knowing that, besides my friends and family, nothing means more to me than the success of the Chicago Bears.”

The young, knowledgeable veteran

Last season, Rypien was a teammate of Matthew Stafford’s in Los Angeles, Geno Smith’s in Seattle and Aaron Rodgers’ in New York. In 2022, he was Russell Wilson’s backup in Denver.

But now Rypien, 28, is the oldest QB on the Bears’ roster. He’s here to talk about what he knows or what he’s seen in the NFL.

“When you’re the younger guy in a room with a veteran, especially Russell or Matthew, you try to give input where you can, but at the end of the day, those guys have seen a lot of football, and you’re more so trying to intake as much information as you can,” Rypien said. “Now I feel like my role has flipped a little bit where I want to be more vocal and use the knowledge that I have gained over the last five years, but really the (last) two or three specifically. I’ve played with a lot of great quarterbacks and been in a lot of different systems. So it’s been cool to take that role.”

Rypien’s experience in the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay system that has spread across the NFL is important to the Bears. He didn’t just play for Waldron and Joseph in Seattle but McVay with the Los Angeles Rams and Nathaniel Hackett with the New York Jets.

Rypien’s rookie season with the Denver Broncos was spent with then-offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, who was previously Shanahan’s QBs coach with the San Francisco 49ers.

“The thing that Shane has done such a great job of is (adapting) to different quarterbacks and how that changes how much you’re able to put in early because you don’t want to overload guys too much,” Rypien said. “You build the base correctly and get your core concepts into the things that you know you love. And then you grow from there.”

Rypien said he’s trying to help the younger quarterbacks from an “operational standpoint.” Some examples include how to call certain plays and run different tempos.

But Rypien also can answer questions about Stafford or Rodgers — and Williams has them, especially because Rodgers was one of his favorite players.

“You can tell they want to learn and want to learn fast,” Rypien said. “Especially from Caleb’s standpoint: ‘How did Aaron do things? How did Matthew do things?’”

The friend and training partner

In January, Reed started training with Williams in Jacksonville with private QBs coach Will Hewlett and Tom Gormley, the director of sports performance and head of sports science at Tork Sports Performance.

“They’ve really transformed the way you look at quarterbacking and the way you generate power and the way you just throw a football overall,” Reed said. “It’s kind of crazy when you get in there and you are in that process of them building you up and developing your mechanics.”

It’s an advanced process. Hewlett and Gormley use motion-capture technology, often used in pro baseball and golf, to work on quarterbacks’ mechanics. Reed said he generates more power on his throws because of it.

“I’m really old-school,” Reed said. “I wasn’t a guy who did a lot of (plyometric exercises) or did anything like that. And I was like, ‘I don’t know if I really need this.’ And when I got into it, I realized, like, ‘Man, I’m so far off from what I could be or what, really, I need to be.’ I realized I really need to dive into this because this can just change my game completely. And I was shocked by how much it does help.”

The training helped Williams, too. Through it, Reed became a friend. He was excited to join Williams on the Bears’ roster after the NFL Draft. During the offseason program, they went to see “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” with receiver Rome Odunze and running back John Jackson. Reed also said he and Williams often studied together at the hotel.

“I think we both were swimming and drinking from a fire hose with this offense,” Reed said.

It’s different now. It helped to figure things out together as friends.

“He and I just got along really well and jelled really well,” said Reed, who played at Western Kentucky. “There was that mutual respect between the two of us. We joke all the time that we’re just like the ‘Step Brothers.’ We’re messing around all the time, messing with each other.”

That’s another movie reference.

“I’m happy to be here for him while he goes through this step,” Reed said. “I’m happy that we’re sharing this first year of our careers together. It’s exciting.”

(Top photo of Caleb Williams and Tyson Bagent: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)

Adam L. Jahns covers the Chicago Bears as a senior writer for The Athletic. He previously worked at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he started in 2005 and covered the Blackhawks (2009-12) and Bears (2012-19). He co-hosts the "Hoge & Jahns" podcast. Follow Adam on Twitter @adamjahns