Bears Lose Dante Pettis Option on Punt Returns

The Bears drama at punt returner took another twist even as they take one more look at the candidates Saturday against Buffalo.

They placed Dante Pettis on injured reserve on Friday, while at the same time waiving wide receiver Joe Reed injured. Pettis was on the non-football injury list to start training camp, and was in practices for only a shor time before going out with an injury.

The punt return duties would then fall to Velus Jones Jr., Tyler Scott, DJ Moore or Tyrique Stevenson from among players currently on the roster. They could always add a return man.

Also on the roster still is Nsimba Webster, who has returned both punts and kicks in an NFL regular season in the past with the Rams. Webster averaged 6.3 yards on punt returns and 22.4 yards on kick returns over the 2019-20 seasons with the Rams.

At least for Saturday, it would seem unlikely Jones would get another shot at making a punt return in the preseason because he has been out for a week injured and was still missing practice on Thursday.

However, Scott was at practice on Thursday so it must be presumed he'll get a shot at returns.

Until coming to the Bears, Scott hadn't returned punts since high school. He returned only kicks for the Cincinnati Bearcats. However, hasn't looked uncomfortable fielding punts in practice and has one 9-yarder in preseason.

Jones, third in the NFL last year in kick return average, misplayed two punts and one resulted in a fumble in the preseason opener. This came on the heels of a season when two muffed punts he had played big roles in Bears losses.

Pettis was third among wide receivers in receptions last year for the Bears and averaged 9.1 yards on 18 punt returns.

This past week Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said they would consider Moore as one of the return men, although not the starter at the position.

Risking their highest-paid player returning punts, something he normally doesn't do, seems adventureous to say the least. Moore has returned 12 NFL punts, the last one coming in 2021. The other 11 were in the 2018-19 seaons. He averaged 6.8 yards a punt return.

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