A heart-warming moment.
Last week, my column touched on Chicago Bears’ back-up quarterback Tyson Bagent.
He was back in the headlines this week with a contract extension that took the NFL by surprise.
On Wednesday, the Bears announced a $10 million, two-year contract extension for their back-up quarterback.
In an emotional press conference, Bagent had tears in his eyes as he spoke about his family and being able to give back to the community as a result of his new contract.
“My Dad is my right-hand man and he didn’t have running water until he was in high school,” said Bagent.
“There are definitely a lot of people I can certainly help with this gift I have been blessed with.”
Tyson Bagent played college football for DII Shepherd Rams in WV
He wasn’t drafted & his first deal was a $25k signing bonus + $1.5M the last two years
He just signed a $10M extension ($5M/year) and broke down in tears, saying how many people he can help with this money👏👏 pic.twitter.com/CdLvSoxmjy
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 20, 2025
Bagent’s initial rookie contract was just shy of $1m a year, meaning this extension is a five-fold pay rise for the player.
With the vast sums of money thrown around in the NFL, this may not seem surprising at first. To truly put this into context, we need to take a deep dive into some other figures for comparison.
Bagent’s journey
Firstly, let us look at Tyson’s journey to this point. Bagent was signed as a free agent by the Bears in 2023, following a college career at Division II Shepherd University.
Considering there are 136 college teams at Division I FBS level and 129 at Division I FCS level, this leaves Shepherd as, at best, the 266th ranked college team in the country.
During his time at Shepherd, Bagent won the Harlon Hill trophy, which is the DII equivalent of the Heisman, clearly excelling at this level. As of opening NFL weekend 2024, there were 46 DII players on NFL rosters – most notably Tyreek Hill – but Bagent was the only quarterback on that list.
Now let us look at how this deal compares to those of his peers.
Based on the average salary per year, the highest paid back-up in the league is unsurprisingly Kirk Cousins on $45m per year. That is an outlier. He is ahead of Anthony Richardson on just under $8.5m.
Bagent becomes the eighth-highest-paid back-up in the league under the new deal. But the rest of the players ahead of him is a who’s who of journeymen and past starters.
That list comprises Marcus Mariota ($8m), Jacoby Brissett ($6.25m), Zach Wilson ($6m), Jarrett Stidham ($6m) and Tyrod Taylor ($6m). One other back-up has a similar salary to Bagent and that is Houston Texans’ Davis Mills, who is on a one-year, $5m deal.
Bagent and Mills do also share the unique oddity of being the only current immediate back-up quarterbacks to sign a contract extension before the end of their current deal.
Bagent now earns more money through his contract per year than Cleveland Browns starter Joe Flacco ($4.25m) and Denver Broncos star slinger Bo Nix ($4.6m).
How’s stat?
Perhaps the most surprising statistic of all is this: Bagent has earned the first Chicago Bears quarterback extension since Jay Cutler in 2014!
The Bears clearly value him, as General Manager Ryan Poles explained when addressing the media.
“One of the worst things that can happen to you in a season is when you see your starter go down and you don’t feel confident with the guy behind him,” Poles said.
Bears fans can definitely feel some comfort after seeing Bagent orchestrate three second-quarter touchdown drives in the 38-0 rout of the Buffalo Bills in their latest preseason outing.
Should Caleb Williams miss any game time in the coming season, the Harlon Hill winner will be a more than adequate replacement for the Heisman winner.
