Bears Add Return Man Dwayne Harris to Practice Squad
The actions of the Bears personnel department spoke louder than coach Matt Nagy's words.
On a Tuesday when Nagy defended the performance of punt returner Ted Ginn Jr., the Bears signed punt and kick returner Dwayne Harris to their practice squad.
Ginn has had a habit of not making the catch on punts and the Bears are stuck with the bounce and roll. On Monday night they were buried in their own end of the field by Johnny Hekker much of the night, twice on balls Ginn didn't field. He had another one he let hit got lucky with a high bounce straight up in the air.
"I think there were probably two that he had yesterday, that he probably could have at least caught that he didn't," Nagy said. "But you also have to give credit to the Rams. They did a good job of the way they were punting and where they were punting it. That's part of the equation, too."
Ginn has handled the punt return duties since the Bears played the Colts in Week 4. Anthony Miller returned two punts against Atlanta after Cohen suffered a torn ACL on a fair catch.
"Obviously when you lose a guy like Tarik, he's one of the best in the league at returning punts, that's a big blow," Nagy said. "But at the same time, you have a guy like Ted who has been experienced in this league and has done it for a lot of years, especially when he was younger."
Ginn hadn't returned a punt since 2017 when he started doing it against the Colts, and Nagy admitted, "...we're not seeing some of that stuff that we're used to seeing and that happens sometimes when you have an elite player like Tarik back there."
Harris is a 33-year-old wide receiver by trade and made more than nine receptions only during two seasons in a seven-year career. What he did well was return punts for Dallas, the New York Giants and the Raiders.
Harris has a career return average of 10.1 yards and last was a regular return man in 2018 with the Raiders. He has four punt return touchdowns for his career and made the Pro Bowl in 2016.
Harris went on injured reserve in 2019 with foot and ankle problems. He had been on IR in 2017 and required foot surgery then. He has solid career averages of 10.1 yards for nine seasons on punt returns and 25.8 yards on kick returns, and has five overall return TDs including four on punts.
In 2018 he led the NFL in punt return average at 14.1 yards per return.
Harris last week had a tryout at Halas Hall.
To make room on the practice squad the Bears cut defensive lineman Terry Beckner.
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