Case Keenum Answers the Bell

[Colts And Orioles]

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12 years ago in 2012, I asserted that I believed that the undrafted Case Keenum would have a longer and more distinguished career than the #1 overall pick Andrew Luck would ...... I was wrong ...... nonetheless, 5 years after Luck took the final snap behind the center of his career, the plucky and determined Keenum is still in the NFL, and still showing that he can play the game as either a starter or a back-up.



Case Keenum Shows Why Demeco Ryans Trusted Him as a Starter

(By Jonathan M. Alexander)

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/tex...s-18560046.php

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[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


12 years ago in 2012, I asserted that I believed that Case Keenum would have a longer and more distinguished career than Andrew Luck would ...... I was wrong ...... nonetheless, 5 years after Luck took the final snap behind the center of his career, the plucky and determined Keenum is still in the NFL, and still showing that he can play the game as either a starter or a back-up.



Case Keenum Shows Why Demeco Ryans Trusted Him as a Starter

(By Jonathan M. Alexander)

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/tex...s-18560046.php

o

Well, you got it half right.

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o



12 years ago in 2012, I asserted that I believed that the undrafted Case Keenum would have a longer and more distinguished career than the #1 overall pick Andrew Luck would ...... I was wrong ...... nonetheless, 5 years after Luck took the final snap behind the center of his career, the plucky and determined Keenum is still in the NFL, and still showing that he can play the game as either a starter or a back-up.



Case Keenum Shows Why Demeco Ryans Trusted Him as a Starter

(By Jonathan M. Alexander)

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/tex...s-18560046.php



o

o


(3 YEARS LATER)



Why the Chicago Bears Believed in QB Case Keenum Ahead of a 27-7 Win Over the Philadelphia Eagles

(By Sean Hammond)

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/...elphia-eagles/



During his 14-to-16-hour workdays this week, Case Keenum kept his phone on “do not disturb” mode. Only calls from two people were allowed ...... his wife Kimberly and Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson.

“I’ll let you guess who called more,” Keenum said.

The 38-year-old couldn’t help but crack a few jokes during his post-game media session after Monday night’s 27-7 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. The pure absurdity of the moment had yet to really hit the journeyman quarterback.

Keenum hadn’t played in a regular-season NFL game in 3 years. Multiple times in recent years he thought that it was time to hang up his cleats, and call it a career.

Then Johnson called ...... as Keenum tells the story, a long conversation with Johnson reignited his passion for the game. The Bears lured Keenum from the precipice of retirement and brought him to Chicago to mentor a pair of young quarterbacks in Caleb Williams and Tyson Bagent.

There was little expectation when the Bears brought Keenum to Chicago in April of 2025 that he would actually play in a game. But this week was the perfect storm. Williams injured his hamstring last week against the Minnesota Vikings. Bagent suffered a concussion and missed almost the entire week of practice.

The Bears were forced to turn to Keenum for a prime-time matchup against the Eagles. And Keenum delivered, throwing for 247 yards, 2 touchdowns and punching in another score on a quarterback sneak. He guided the Bears to a dominant win over a team that has been one of the NFC’s more consistent competitors in recent years.

It started from the first drive, when Keenum led the Bears 66 yards to a TD, capped by an 8-yard TD pass to Luther Burden III. A few hours later, Keenum added a final exclamation point with his 1-yard quarterback sneak, in which both guards pulled out of the area and Keenum had all the space in the world to dive into the end zone.

“My word of the week was trust,” Keenum said when asked about the QB sneak ...... “Trust my preparation, trust my abilities, trust my feet, trust my eyes, trust my O-line, trust the play call, trust the play design. I just trusted it and it worked.”

Keenum put a lot of trust in Johnson this week ...... and in turn, the Bears put a lot of trust in Keenum.

He came to Chicago a year and-a-half ago, a Texas man at heart embracing the Windy City, and settled into his role as the 3rd=string quarterback and the veteran voice. The Bears never needed him to play in a game through all of last year.

But with both Williams and Bagent sidelined when the practice week started on Wednesday, it was Keenum taking reps with the starters. His teammates couldn’t have been more confident in him.

Offensive tackle Theo Benedet saw it in practice every day over the last year and-a-half with the scout team.

“It feels like he’s one of us out there, representing the scout team,” Benedet said.

Once training camp is over, 3rd-string quarterbacks rarely see much action in practice. The starter gets almost all the reps, and the backup takes a few here and there. The 3rd- or 4th-string quarterbacks are either taking scout-team reps emulating the opponent, or they’re simply watching and going through mental reps.

Keenum’s work looked very different this week.

“This week was a blast,” Keenum said. “Getting 1st-team reps, and having game-plan plays. We’re looking through film, and trying to figure out ways to beat these guys.”

One such play was a 41-yardTD pass to receiver Kalif Raymond, another journeyman veteran. Keenum admitted that Johnson had to, perhaps, convince him to keep the play in the game plan during final preparations on Sunday night.

Raymond cut inside and Keenum hit him over the middle with tons of green grass in front of him. Raymond outraced everybody to the end-zone.
Raymond said that he knew long before this week that Keenum could win the Bears a game, if needed.

“I felt something like this was possible from Case in organized team activities,” Raymond said. “Not even to be cliché about it. The kind of guy he is, how he’s on his p’s and his q’s. We knew that he was going to put in the kind of work and be as prepared as he was.”

Raymond led the Bears with 90 receiving yards and a TD on 6 catches.

Keenum has been employed by 8 NFL franchises, and appeared in 80 games with 66 starts prior to Monday night ...... but he hadn’t appeared in a regular-season game since 2023. He had started only 4 games in the 2020s, prior to Monday.

None of that mattered to his teammates.

“He just has such a calming factor to him in the huddle, being the veteran presence that he is,” Benedet said.

Added tight end Cole Kmet: “Case is such a great personality, kept it loose, kept it fun and that’s why we were all so confident going into the game.”

Keenum threw for 2 TD's and ran for another TD for the first time since November 23rd of 2017, as a member of the Minnesota Vikings. At 38 years and 223 days, Keenum became the oldest player in Bears history to run for a TD, beating out former quarterback Dave Krieg (38 years, 49 days), per NFL Research.

It was a night he won’t forget.

“You dream of it,” Keenum said. “That’s why I’m still here, still doing this. That’s why I’m still getting up when I get knocked down ...... I’ve been getting knocked down my whole career ...... I just keep getting up, keep coming to work, and keep bouncing back.”

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