The Bears are heading into Week 5 against the Packers without Caleb Williams, and that changes more than just the quarterback spot on the depth chart.
Chicago already ruled Williams out with a hamstring injury, and Tyson Bagent will get the start. It will be Williams’ third missed game of the season, though the Bears have gone 2-0 without him. Bagent flashed some promise in the Week 4 win over the New York Jets, but this is still a different offense without the player the Bears drafted in 2024.
What Chicago loses is bigger than one arm throwing passes. Williams brings a different kind of stress to a defense, and the Bears are missing that against a Packers team they know well.
The first thing the Bears will miss is the way Williams changes the run game just by being on the field. During training camp, the buzz around his weight loss quickly turned into something more concrete once the games started: he looked quicker, more elusive, and much more dangerous with the ball in his hands.
That showed up right away in Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers, when he ran for 65 yards on 10 carries and scored two touchdowns. One of those runs went for 29 yards and made the point plain - this was not the same quarterback operating from the pocket.
Chicago’s rushing attack was already strong with D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, but Williams pushed it into another gear. Against Carolina, the Bears piled up 291 rushing yards, scored six touchdowns and averaged 7.5 yards per carry.
The difference has been obvious this season: with Williams starting, Chicago is averaging 227 yards per game on the ground and 5.9 yards per carry. Without him, those numbers drop to 180 yards per game and four yards per carry.
That matters even more against a Packers defense that has struggled to stop the run. Green Bay is 28th in the NFL in run defense, allowing 139.3 yards per game. Chicago should still be able to run the ball, but Williams would have made that matchup even more lopsided, especially with Micah Parsons and Edgerrin Cooper not playing in the game.
The second thing the Bears lose is Williams’ knack for taking care of the football. Since 2024, he has thrown only 14 interceptions in 36 games, a rate that helps keep drives alive and mistakes to a minimum.
Bagent’s track record is different. In 2023, when he started, he threw more interceptions than touchdowns.
Against the Jets, he threw one pick and had four others wiped out by penalties, which was a huge break for Chicago.
That kind of luck is hard to count on again, and it gets trickier with Green Bay’s defense. The Packers rank fourth in pass defense at 185 yards allowed per game and are tied for second in the league with four interceptions this year. Williams would have given the Bears a steadier hand in a game where a turnover-heavy outing from Bagent would be a real problem.
And then there’s the part of Williams’ game that has already become part of his identity: the late-game surge. The Bears have used that trait to beat the Packers before.
In their two matchups against Green Bay last season, Chicago erased double-digit second-half deficits and outscored the Packers 50-6 in the second half and overtime. In the Wild Card win last year, the Bears were down 18 points entering the third quarter before storming back to win.
Williams has a way of flipping the tempo once the game starts tilting late. His playmaking gives him a chance to attack a tired defense, stack chunk plays and finish drives. In those two wins over Green Bay last year, all four of his second-half touchdowns came in the fourth quarter or overtime.
Bagent hasn’t had that stage yet in the same way, and that may be the biggest thing Chicago is missing. Williams led an NFL-record seven comeback and game-winning drives in 2025, and that kind of finishing ability is exactly what the Bears will not have against the Packers.
In Other News...
Ben Johnson Sends Clear Message After D'Andre Swift's Costly Mistake
DAndre Swifts early-season ball-security issues have become a real concern for the Bears, and they took center stage in Week 4 against the Jets. The veteran running back has already put the ball on the ground twice in the first four weeks of his seventh NFL season, which is a sharp turn from the consistency he showed over his first six years, when he never lost more than three fumbles in a season.
After Swifts third-quarter fumble against New York, Ben Johnson quickly sent a message by benching him and calling the mistake egregious. It was a pointed reminder that ball security is not optional in Chicagos locker room, and Johnsons comments made clear that accountability is going to matter just as much as production as the Bears try to settle that backfield situation. [Read more 🡒]
Jaylon Johnson Faces A Bears Test That Could Change Everything
Jaylon Johnson has spent much of the 2026 season under an unusually bright spotlight, and for a Bears defense that leans heavily on him, the scrutiny has only intensified. His production has not matched the standard he set in previous years, and the next assignment is the kind that tends to separate a rough stretch from a real concern: a matchup with Packers receiver Christian Watson, one of the more demanding cover jobs on the schedule.
Johnson has seen Watson before, which only adds to the weight of what comes next. Green Bay will try to stress Chicago with a receiver who can punish even a small lapse in coverage, and this game gives Johnson a chance to steady a season that has already raised questions about where he stands within the Bears long-term plans. How he responds could say plenty about both the rest of his year and what comes after it. [Read more 🡒]
Bears Defense Faces Its Biggest Test Since That Ugly Week 1
After the rough Week 1 showing, the Bears defense has settled in and given the team a much firmer foundation over the past three weeks. Dennis Allens unit has been a big part of Chicagos recent wins, tightening on third down, cutting back on explosive plays and helping drive down the points allowed compared with last season.
Now comes the real measuring stick. The numbers suggest progress is real, but the next stretch will say a lot about whether this defense has truly turned a corner or simply benefited from a favorable run of matchups, because the Bears are about to find out how much of that early-season improvement can hold when the competition forces them to keep proving it every week. [Read more 🡒]