Tyson Bagent didn’t worry much this past offseason about whether the Bears would bring in a more experienced backup quarterback besides Brett Rypien to challenge for his job.
“Yeah, you know, I didn’t really think too much about it,” Bagent said after Friday’s practice at Halas Hall. “I was too busy grinding my absolute face off in the offseason.
“But whatever they were going to do, that’s completely up to them. I can’t control that. But yeah. I was just excited to come back. Whoever was going to be in the QB room was going to be in the QB room. Nothing was going to change my mind.”
It was Bagent’s friend, Derek Gallagher, who engineered the grinding of his face, limbs, rear end and probably brain.
“June 19, shout out to one of my best friends, Derek Gallagher,” Bagent said. “One mile burpee broad jump. Hour and even minutes. Let’s go.”
What that consisted of was: “Burpee. Broad jump. Burpee. Broad jump. One mile.”
For the uninitiated, a burpee is a squat thrust, with an additional stand between reps. So they would do a burpee, then broad jump.
No school track or anything of that sort for this endeavor.
“Starting point was his backyard, went a half-mile to the river, touched the river,” Bagent said. “Half-mile back.”
And the calories burnt?
“I don’t know,” Bagent said. “I ate a lot afterwards.
“Shout out to Shephardstown, WV. Betty’s Restaurant. What did I get? I think I just got six eggs and bacon. And some toast.”
It was probably more information than anyone needed.
But everyone was going to get it anyway.
“It was his birthday workout,” Bagent said. “Every year he chooses a ridiculous workout to do on his birthday.”
The two were definitely getting strange looks for this attempt at grinding his face off.
“Always some people looking at us funny, but that makes it even better,” Bagent said.
Always? This only could mean there had been other attempts by this task master friend to enlist him in a strange physical test.
“This was the fourth,” Bagent said.
Another fun one: “Oh, well, last year it was birthday 5k: 1,000-meter burpee-broad jump, 1,000-meter row, 1,000-meter backward sled drag, 1,000-meter sandbag run, 1,000-meter backwards run.”
After all of that, an NFL training camp can’t seem too severe to the son of a world arm wrestling champion.
Bagent, who played in 4 1/2 games as a rookie last year, threw his first interception of training camp on Tuesday but shrugged it off.
“That’s never fun,” he said, “but it’s great to be able to see what works and what doesn’t work with different coverages and concepts that we’re installing.
“I feel head and shoulders better than I did last year at this time and certainly excited to get these preseason games underway and see what not just what the Ones can do but see what the depth of this offense can be.”
Part of the reason he is more comfortable is simply being a year into his career after winning two starts last year when Fields got hurt. The other part is new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
“I think he does a great job of understanding what the player is feeling in the plays,” Bagent said of Waldron. “He’s coached everywhere, he’s taught all these concepts before. So maybe just the on-paper answer that another coach will give, he can give real life examples of ‘hey, you know this actually doesn’t work in this look so this is how we’re going to do this to make easier for you guys so you guys can play fast.’
“Because at the end of the day, you know, right or wrong as long as we’re playing fast with no hesitation you give yourself a better chance. So I think he does a good job of being in the player’s head and understanding what they’re thinking on different plays.”
With all due respect to Waldron, Bagent thinks he’s better mostly because of the year experience. It doesn’t matter that he is in a different offense. Now he’s had a year in the NFL when last year his advanced football experience consisted of Shepherd University.
“I remember vividly last year Nate (Peterman) and Justin and (Luke) Getsy and everybody really going back and forth on ideas and things they’ve done, and I would kinda sit there and wonder, ‘Man, am I ever gonna be able to engage and help out in these conversations?’ ” Bagent said.
“And it’s been a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when just coming in this year and basing things off my experience last year, and being able to bounce ideas off of (Brett Rypien), off of Shane, it’s been great. I’ve made a lot of progress in that as far as being a resource and somebody that can help out with things that I’ve seen or that I’ve had to experience in playing time.”
It doesn’t matter to Bagent that Williams is the starter now.
“I want the Bears to win the Super Bowl, so being that resource, if it’s what I need to do, then I’ll do it to the best of my ability,” Waldron said. “So, just, really good to be where I’m at in kind of that mind frame right there.”
And his physical frame isn’t bad, either, thanks to Gallagher’s burpee/broad jump fest.
