Around a year ago, Tyson Bagent was preparing to face East Stroudsburg College as the quarterback of Division II Shepherd University. This week, he gets ready to face the New Orleans Saints as the starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears.
From receiving negligible attention from FCS or FBS programs out of high school to becoming one of the best players in Division II history and securing a spot on the Bears’ 53-man roster for this season, Bagent’s journey truly resembles that of a Hollywood movie. Let’s dive into his story – how he got here, and what the future could hold for one of the NFL’s most intriguing newcomers.
Bagent was born and raised in Martinsburg, West Virginia, a small town on the Northeast corner of the state about an hour and a half drive from Washington, D.C. He grew up no stranger to competition and sporting success; his father, Travis Bagent, is a 28-time arm wrestling champion and considered one of the greatest athletes in the history of the sport. Travis introduced Tyson to football at an early age and was committed to his son playing quarterback. So much, in fact, that he coached Travis’ youth football teams up to high school and “made sure to throw the ball at a high rate,” as he told The Athletic in December.
It paid off, with Tyson earning the starting job at Martinsburg High School as a sophomore and never looking back. He finished his career with over 7,800 yards passing and 112 touchdowns, while earning the West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year award his senior year. Despite his success, he was recruited by noo Division I programs outside of Albany and Robert Morris, leading him to commit to Division II school Shepherd University, his parents’ alma mater.
Some may view Bagent’s decision to turn down Division I programs for Shepherd as questionable, yet his decision paid off quickly, as he earned the starting quarterback job as a true freshman and shone immediately, receiving first-team all-MEC honors for the 2018 season. He continued this dominance throughout his next four years (2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), finishing his collegiate career with over 17,000 pass yards and an all-division NCAA record 159 touchdowns on 68.9 percent completion while breaking almost every quarterback record in Shepherd History.
To this day, Bagent attributes his success to experience.
“I feel like I’ve played a million games at quarterback… I was able to win the job at high school in my sophomore year and then started every game through my senior year at college, so that’s seven years of understanding what the week of preparation looks like,” Bagent told Sky Sports in an interview in October.
Throughout his scorching of the Division II landscape, Bagent earned a myriad of individual accolades like first-team DII All-American and PSAC offensive player of the year selections in 2021 and 2022 and the Harlon Hill Trophy in 2021 ( Division II’s Heisman). Truly, it’s not hyperbole to say that Bagent hung up his Sheperd jersey as one of the greatest Division II football players of all time.
It was this unprecedented dominance that led Bagent to receive an invite to the premier collegiate showcase game, the Senior Bowl, after the 2022 season, something almost unheard of for a Division II quarterback. Yet despite the week being his first exposure to Division I level play in his career, Bagent outplayed the other two American team quarterbacks — Max Duggan, fresh off a College Football Playoff final appearance with Texas Christian; and University of Houston quarterback Clayton Tune, who went on to be drafted in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL draft.
Bagent was also invited to participate in the 2023 NFL Combine, and while he went on to be undrafted, he was picked up as a priority undrafted free agent by the Chicago Bears, who gave him a shot to earn a roster spot during training camp.
And that he did. Despite the Bears signing quarterback P.J. Walker to a two-year, $4.15 million deal in 2023 free agency, a strong indication as to their commitment to his services as a backup, the team decided to cut him in late August and shift their focus to seventh-year veteran Nathan Peterman and Bagent, who beat out Walker as the third string throughout the offseason despite it being only his second experience playing around NFL talent.
Bagent continued to impress in practice, and by Week 4, was announced as the team’s second-string quarterback, with Peterman relegated to the practice squad. The Shepherd product’s upward trajectory continued, and in Week 6, as starting quarterback Justin Fields struggled to get up from a hard hit against the Minnesota Vikings, Bagent came in for relief.
With Justin Fields week to week with a thumb injury, head coach Matt Eberflus announced Bagent as the interim starter prior to the Bears’ Week 7 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. He became the first Division II quarterback to start an NFL game in 14 years, and led the Bears to only their fifth win since the start of the 2022 season, finishing a respectable 21-for-29 with 162 yards and a touchdown.
Bagent struggled the following week in primetime against the Los Angeles Chargers, throwing for two interceptions and finishing with a passer rating of 62, although that’s to be expected – he is a rookie quarterback learning to play at NFL speed.
Ultimately, Bagent may not be the Bears’ future, or even be on the roster next year, yet his journey up to this point is a testament to his tremendous dedication and hard work – only 1.4 percent of collegiate football players make it to the NFL, and Tyson Bagent did it on the DII route. And with his decent performance to this point, he’s on track to cement himself as a professional quarterback for years to come. He may end up as a journeyman backup, yet Bagent’s career is trending to be a tremendous success.
“Don’t ever let anybody’s opinion stop you from chasing what you want. That’s really what it boils down to for me - just the work,” he told Bears reporters in a press conference earlier this month. “Tirelessly working day in and day out and never stopping. And you know, great things can be a result of that.”