Ben Johnson's Dilemma: Why Benching Case Keenum Proves the Bears Still Don't Know What They Have

You know what one of the hardest things in football is? Making a decision when both paths seem wrong. That's where Ben Johnson finds himself right now with the Chicago Bears, and if you've been around this game long enough, you can feel the uncertainty hanging over Soldier Field like a thick Chicago fog in November. The Bears beat the Eagles on Monday night, and Case Keenum threw two touchdown passes in a game that had no business being close, no business being a win, and certainly no business making anyone feel confident about anything. Yet here we are, and somehow that victory is creating more questions than answers, which tells you everything you need to know about where this franchise sits.

Let me tell you something about Case Keenum. I've watched this guy play a lot of football, and he's the kind of quarterback who can give you a Monday night miracle one week and make you want to throw your television out the window the next. He's been around, played in big games, knows what he's doing when his mechanics are right and his confidence is high. But confidence in the NFL is like trying to hold water in your hands, and once it starts leaking out, well, you're in trouble. The thing about pulling him out after that Eagles win is that it tells me Ben Johnson still isn't sure what he's building here, and that's the real story worth talking about.

When you're coaching a team that's been as dysfunctional as Chicago has been, you've got to make decisions that stick. You've got to have conviction. You've got to look your team in the eye and say, "This is our guy," and mean it with everything you've got. Quarterbacks know when you believe in them, and they know when you don't. They can feel it like a cold front moving in from Canada. The moment you start yanking guys around based on one good game or one bad game, you've lost the locker room in a way that's hard to get back. I've seen it happen a hundred times, and it never gets better. It only gets worse.

Now, I'm not saying Case Keenum is the long-term answer in Chicago. The Bears have bigger problems than who's throwing the football, and we all know that. But here's what I do know after watching football for more years than I care to count: when you've got a guy who just beat a legitimate football team and threw two touchdowns doing it, you don't immediately go back to the other guy unless you've got a crystal-clear reason. And I'm not convinced Ben Johnson has one. I think what's happening here is that Johnson is second-guessing himself, which means he's not comfortable with any of his options, which means the Bears are still in quarterback purgatory.

Let's talk about what matters in this business because that's what the real analysis comes down to. You want to know if someone can play quarterback in the National Football League, you watch them under pressure. You watch them when the game is on the line. You watch them when the other team has momentum and time is running out. Case Keenum, against the Eagles, proved he could do some of those things. Were the Eagles a complete mess? Sure. Did the Bears get lucky? Probably. But you know what? Football is a game of inches and lucky bounces, and sometimes the team that wins is the team that makes fewer mistakes in those moments. Keenum made the plays when it mattered, and that counts for something.

But here's where it gets interesting, and this is the part that really gets at the heart of what's wrong with how the Bears are operating. Ben Johnson brought in Case Keenum as a seasoned veteran, a guy who's been places, done things, seen defenses. He also had Tyson Bagent waiting in the wings, a young quarterback who was drafted to be developed. Now, there's nothing wrong with having competition at the position, nothing wrong with seeing who's got what. That's how you get better sometimes. But when you've got a situation this muddled, where you're not sure from week to week who you're going to trust, you're not building anything. You're just treading water and hoping someone eventually figures it out.

The problem with the NFL in 2024 is that everyone wants a clear narrative, a clean story. We want to know who the starter is, who the future is, and what the plan looks like. But the Bears haven't given us that clarity, and benching a guy after he just won a football game doesn't give us clarity either. It just gives us more confusion. It tells me that Johnson doesn't have a master plan, that he's reacting to circumstances rather than creating them. And that's not how great coaching works. Great coaching is about having a vision and sticking with it even when things get messy.

Listen, I get it. Keenum threw two touchdown passes against an Eagles defense that wasn't exactly playing their best football. The Eagles had a lot of problems on that night, and some of that fell into the Bears' lap. But you know what? That's how this game works. You play the opponent in front of you, and if they're not at their best, you take advantage. That's what good football teams do. That's what separated the great coaches from the ones who got fired. They understood that you don't need to win ugly if you're winning, and sometimes beating a team even when they're not at their best is more important than losing to them when they are.

The Jets game coming up is a different animal entirely. The Jets have a defense that can create problems, and they've got Aaron Rodgers on the other side, which means the Bears will probably need to score more than they have been scoring to have a chance to win. This is a test that will tell you a lot about whoever the Bears put on the field. But here's the thing that bothers me: if Ben Johnson was smart, he would've stuck with Keenum and said, "This is my guy for at least the next two weeks. We're going to see what he can do against real competition, and we're going to build from there." That would've shown strength of conviction. That would've shown leadership. Instead, he's bouncing back to his primary backup, which means he never really committed to anything in the first place.

I've been watching this Bears team, and what I see is a franchise that's still searching. They haven't found their identity. They haven't found their quarterback. They haven't found their way. And the truth is, you can't build a winning football team until you figure out who you are and what you believe in. Are you a run-first team? Are you a passing team? Do you believe in your young quarterback, or do you believe in your veteran? Do you believe in your defense, or do you believe in your offense? The Bears seem to believe in a little bit of everything and fully in nothing, and that's a recipe for mediocrity. That's a recipe for late Saturday morning playoff elimination games and offseason changes.

For fans watching this circus, you should care about this decision because it speaks to the bigger problem in Chicago. This isn't just about whether Keenum or Bagent starts against the Jets. This is about whether the Bears organization has any idea what they're doing. A team that doesn't know what it believes in doesn't win football games. A team that bounces around at quarterback doesn't make the playoffs. A coach that second-guesses himself after one good week doesn't build a championship roster. These are the kinds of decisions that define seasons, and they define organizations. So pay attention, because this decision is going to tell you everything you need to know about whether the Bears are serious about winning or just going through the motions. And in football, going through the motions is a lot worse than just losing, because at least when you lose, you learn something. When you just go through the motions, you learn nothing at all.