Chicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum turned back the clock Monday night as he led his team to a surprise 27-7 thumping of the Philadelphia Eagles, a team many consider one of the best in the NFL.
The 38-year-old third-stringer hadn’t started a regular-season game in 1,009 days, with the Houston Texans in 2023, but he showed no signs of rust under the primetime lights. Keenum completed 24 of 34 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns (no interceptions) while adding another score on a 1-yard QB sneak in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
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Keenum was thrust into the lineup because starting QB Caleb Williams suffered a hamstring strain in Week 2 and backup Tyson Bagent is working through the NFL’s concussion protocol. Yet, all uncertainty about Keenum’s readiness faded as he calmly led Chicago down the field on the game’s opening drive, capping it with a 7-yard TD on a shuffle pass to wide receiver Luther Burden.
Then, with his team leading 13-7 in the third quarter, Keenum darted a pass over the middle to wide receiver Kalif Raymond, who took it the rest of the way for the 41-yard score.
KALIF RAYMOND TO THE HOUSE
📺: ESPN pic.twitter.com/JYrzzQ1Ol0
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 29, 2026
Keenum was interviewed by ESPN amidst a celebratory postgame scene on Chicago’s famed Soldier Field, and he was bubbling over with gratitude.
“All glory to God,” he said. “I’m not here without Him. He has put me here. He has made me for this. I’m so thankful for Him. I can’t thank Him enough.”
Bears Backup QB Case Keenum Gives All Glory to God After Leading the Bears to Victory on Monday Night Football!🙏🙌
📸: @espn pic.twitter.com/BXxVr2D3rL— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) September 29, 2026
God’s glory was also on Keenum’s mind before the opening kickoff, before any of his on-field success.
“I just hugged my family, had a great week of practice with the boys,” he told ESPN on the field. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of this, I really have. And whatever happens today, I’m gonna give God the glory.”
Keenum has played for eight different NFL teams, and started a game for an NFL-record-tying seven of them, during his lengthy tenure in the NFL. He went undrafted out of the University of Houston in 2012 but signed with the Houston Texans after the draft. He made his NFL debut a year later. Then after various stops with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins/Commanders, Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills, Keenum — back with the Texans — was placed on injured reserve on the precipice of the 2024 season.
Keenum was already 37, unsigned, and thinking his NFL days may have come to an end when the Bears and new head coach Ben Johnson reached out to him in the spring of 2025. He signed in early April and was in Chicago last season, not seeing any playing time but serving as an important mentor for Williams, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2024. When Keenum finally saw the field again Monday, he did not disappoint.
“Playing well anytime in your career feels good,” Keenum said during Monday’s postgame press conference. “To do it on ‘Monday Night Football’ after you thought you weren’t ever going to play again multiple times, golly, this is special. It’s really special. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to put it into words tonight, but I’m going to enjoy it tonight, that’s for sure.”
The Brownwood, Texas, native has been sure to give God glory at each stop of his unlikely and often meandering journey through the NFL. He shared his testimony of faith in Christ with Sports Spectrum’s “Football Sunday” in 2019, and the following year, he was part of the “Sports Spectrum Football Special.” He lists the Bible verse Isaiah 40:31 in his X bio.
Keenum joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast in April 2024 to talk about his improbable NFL career as well as his relationship with Jesus.
“He’s Someone I go to every day,” Keenum said on the podcast. “A best Friend. A Savior.
“… It’s like any relationship in our lives, where I have to work on it. This is me preaching to myself right now of just this constant thing of continuing to run after Him in all areas of my life. That’s a part of me bowing down to Him in each of these areas of my life and chasing after Him.”
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It hasn’t been announced if Keenum will be called upon to start again for Chicago (2-1) in its Week 4 home matchup with the New York Jets (1-2). But whether Keenum will be chasing another win as a starting QB or not, he will certainly be chasing after a deeper relationship with Christ.
Kickoff on Sunday from Chicago is set for 1 p.m. ET.
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