The last thing Velus Jones could afford to do Saturday was fumble.
He did just that.
On the first play of the second quarter Saturday, Jones let a punt hit at the 37-yard line — he was at the 35 — then had to backpedal to try to catch the ball on the bounce. He reached for the ball, muffed it, and was hit by Titans safety Mike Brown. The ball caromed off Brown’s back and was recovered by Titans linebacker Luke Gifford.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus spoke to Jones — who let the first punt of the game bounce, but fielded it without incident — after he ran back to the sideline. The Bears soon switched punt returners.
“It comes down to fundamentals, it comes down to technique,” Eberflus said. “We’re 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.”
Eberflus said both punts were difficult to catch; the Titans’ Ryan Stonehouse left them short on purpose.
Jones is blessed with otherworldly speed but needs to prove he can be trusted to secure the ball. He fumbled two of his five punt return last year — both times in the fourth quarter of losses — and was benched. He returned 22 kickoffs for 607 yards.
He did not return kickoffs Saturday; rookie Tyler Scott did.
Unlike last year, the Bears’ receivers room is crowded. Jones needs to provide special teams value just to make the team.
