Familiar Issue for Bears in Preseason Opener

The Bears have a problem.

Despite all of the celebrating over a meaningless 23-17 preseason victory against Tennessee, one of the key questions they faced heading into the off-season remains in place.

Velus Jones Jr. fielding punts remains an issue. He was said to have muffed the ball in Saturday's win and the end result was Tennessee's Luke Gifford recovering it at the Bears 25-yard line. A.J. Thomas saved face a bit for Jones by intercepting Malik Willis on the next play but preseason is preparation for the regular season and Jones looked like anything but the more polished punt returner coaches had promised.

If this had been one instance of difficulty, it might be easier to overlook. Well, not really, not after Jones muffed two punts last regular season and misplayed several others.

The problem is, this was his second opportunity to field a punt in the game and he didn't muff the ball in the air. He didn't track the ball right and allowed it to hit the ground first, then tried to field it as it took a high bounce and that allowed the coverage unit to descend upon him.

Worse, the exact same thing happened on the first punt he fielded. He didn't come up and field it properly and let it hit the ground. Jones was merely fortunate it took a quicker bounce right to him and he was able to gain 7 yards by weaving through a few would-be tacklers.

"And again, I know with Velus (Jones Jr.) muffing that punt, again it comes down to fundamentals, it comes down to technique, and we are going to work on that: reading the flight of the ball, getting ourselves in position early, and then getting underneath the football and squeezing the ball down on the catch."

Everyone had been assured this was done, and Jones was a new man.

"He's come in, he's done a lot of work this off-season," Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower had said a week into training camp. "He did a lot of work when he was here. It's important to him. He's done a lot of work when he's away, catching with several different punters.

"Really, taking his catch load up from where it was to what it is now on a daily basis and I just see a change in the human being from Year 1 to Year 2."

This much is certain. He tried fielding it in the air and muffed it last year and now it's after a bounce.

"Those were two short punts," Eberflus said after the game. "Like I said, the nose was up so they come down prety fast, so you've got two of the more difficult ones back-to-back.

"(Ryan Stonehouse) is a really good punter. He can really boom them. so we were setting back a litle bit because he can really bomb them in the part of the field he was in, so (Jones) had to come up more than he usually would."

It is true Stonehouse led the NFL in average distance last year, but the fumbled punt went 48 yards in the air from the line of scrimmage. So it wasn't necessarily short. The first one was.

"He just has to use fundamental technique and read the ball before it gets too high, then get underneath it," Eberflus said.

Hightower had assured everyone Jones now knew how to get to the "spot" where the ball would go better than before after some words of wisdom from Devin Hester.

The good part about all of this is Dante Pettis is back. He isn't as explosive as Jones but at least he catches it.

They have several other options and the best one might be Tyler Scott. He still needs work at this, as well, but letting him do it would make it easier on the coaches.

Scott figures to be a fourth or fifth receiver at best. If Pettis does it, they might be forced to keep seven wide receivers on the 53-man roster when that seventh spot could normally be used for another linebacker or lineman or defensive back. Scott doing this could save a roster spot for another position.

They had Tyrique Stevenson fielding punts at Bears Family Fest last week and he was being very persuasive with coaches about being allowed to do it. After seeing how effective he is playing cornerback in a live game, it's the last thing they need to do. Stevenson could be a valuable starter at cornerback even as a rookie.

The Bears once tried letting their best cornerback return a punt on a misguided reverse in the Super Bowl when they were routing the New England Patriots. Leslie Frazier's career ended for all intents and purposes on that punt return with a knee injury. He was one of the best cornerbacks in franchise history and could have eventually been the best but played only five seasons as a result of the injury.

The Bears don't need Stevenson returning punts.

They don't need Jones doing it again, either.

The good thing about mistakes in the first preseason game is there is time to correct them. Jones had all off-season to correct his issues with punt returns and apparently hasn't. The coaches still have a little less than a month to correct theirs and put someone else back to return punts.

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