Bears Finish 24th in Special Teams Rankings

Anyone who saw:

Velus Jones Jr. muff two critical punts in losses or ...

Trenton Gill get a punt blocked against Miami in a three-point loss or

Cairo Santos' five missed extra points or

Cordarrelle Patterson take one back for a TD knows the Bears suffered through an up-and-down year on special teams.

In fact, it was probably more down than up because in the Rick Gosselin final overall special teams rankings the Bears were ranked 24th in the league in the first season under special teams coordinator Richard Hightower.

They had been ninth in each of Chris Tabor's final two years as special teams coordinator, so they took a tumble.

Much of special teams ranking can fluctuate greatly depending on the number of rookies a team needs to use on coverage teams and as blockers on return teams. All that needs to be known here is the Bears ranked third in the number of plays this year by rookies on their roster on offense and defense, but when special teams are added in the Bears were far and away the team with the most plays by rookies.

"We led the league in rookie snaps by almost a thousand," GM Ryan Poles said.

The Bears were 28th in kick coverage, which is understandable with all the young players, but second in returning kicks at 26.21 yards. What's interesting about that is all four NFC North teams ranked between second and fifth in returning kicks.

The critical thing they need going forward is a punt returner.

They would have loved Jones to have worked out at this but his muffs ruined this experiment. In the offseason, Jones took a cue from Darnell Mooney and purchased a JUGS machine to work on his hands at home. Whether he has the ability to work on fielding punts this way isn't certain but if he does then he could solve a big problem for them.

"It's easier to return punts, but it's harder to catch them than kickoffs, if that makes any sense," Hightower said.

Of course it does, because there's often a crowd around the punt returner and no one around the kick returner.

Punt returner/receiver Dante Pettis is a free agent and it looks like keeping him on the roster another year as punt returner and last receiver for games could hinge on whether they can improve the receiver corps in free agency or the draft.

Former Bears return man DeAndre Carter, as well as Cincinnati's Trent Taylor, Green Bay's Keisean Nixon and Arizona's Pharoh Cooper are among the top free agent punt returners ahead of Pettis but signing one of them makes little sense when they're not likely to contribute as much as a receiver as Pettis could in an emergency.

Eric Garror of Louisiana, Derius Davis from TCU, Natrone Brooks from Southern Mississippi and Rboert Ferrel from Washington State are among the better punt returners eligible for the draft but what usually happens is the best punt returners in college aren't doing it.

Most top receivers, backs and defensive backs who come into the NFL were not being risked on special teams in college and could be in the NFL.

The real solution would just be Jones doing it and being much better at fielding the ball. He was excellent with the ball in his hands because of his speed.

Even the blocking looks better then and the Bears proved it on kick return teams with Jones in 2022.

"It's different when you have a guy back there that you know can go to the house," Hightower said. "People really enjoy blocking for him, so that's been outstanding."

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