Velus Jones had just explained what happened in Saturday’s game — he muffed a punt that he decided to let bounce and then tried to catch on a hop — when he was asked about the makeup of the Bears wide receiver room.
Last year at this time, the Bears had the weakest receiver corps in the NFL. Since then, they’ve traded for DJ Moore and Chase Claypool and drafted Tyler Scott. Jones needs to shore up his special teams play just to make the team, right? Right?
“Honestly, If you wanna be real,” the second-year receiver told the Sun-Times on Monday. “I respect every guy, from DJ to Chase, Moon, [Equanimeous St. Brown], Dante [Pettis] and Tyler, the rookie, and stuff like that. I know my specialty, and I’m pretty sure the coaches know that I’m real special when the ball gets in my hands.”
The problem is making sure the ball lands in his hands without incident.
TITANS BALL!@luke_gifford lands on the muffed punt
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) August 12, 2023
📺: Watch #TENvsCHI on @WKRN/ @nflnetwork/ NFL+ pic.twitter.com/dMXKO2MO7l
Jones’ fumbling has, for the second straight preseason, become a reason for concern during camp. He fumbled the first ball he touched in a preseason game last year, and then coughed it up three times during the regular season.
Jones returned five regular-season punts last year. He fumbled two of them — both in the fourth quarters of losses to the Giants and Commanders — and then lost his job.
The Bears spent the offseason making sure Jones focused on ball security. Everyone from coordinator Richard Hightower to head coach Matt Eberflus to receivers coach Tyke Tolbert to quarterbacks/receivers assistant Omar Young has stood behind Jones and watched him field punts in practice.
“It takes a village,” Hightower said last week.
The key, Hightower and Eberflus have said countless times, is for Jones to get to the spot where the punt will land before the ball gets there, set himself and make the catch.
That didn’t happen on either on Jones’ punt returns Saturday against the Titans.
The Bears lined Jones up deep both times, cognizant that Titans punter Ryan Stonehouse had one of the league’s strongest legs. Both times he left the punt short — Jones said the punter told him after the game he was having trouble reading the Soldier Field wind — and Jones had to play the hop.
“I’m never gonna run up and try to grab a ball if I didn’t beat it to the spot,” Jones said. “Bad things can happen.”
The first time, Jones caught the punt on a bounce and took it seven yards. The second time, he charged the ball, watched it hit only two yards away, then tried to catch it on the hop.
“Just being a competitor, trying to make a football play,” he said.
As he reached for the ball, he was hit by Titans safety Mike Brown. The ball bounced off Brown and eventually into the arms of linebacker Luke Gifford.
Jones wouldn’t get another chance, though he said the coaches were ready to send him in later in the second quarter had the Titans not marched to score.
“It’s all about awareness, being smart …” Jones said. “All week, all camp, I’ve been doing a good job catching them, feeling them out. Even when we practice in the stadium. I’ve just gotta make a smarter play, even though I got that competitive edge in me and stuff like that. Really proving it to myself and not everybody else.”
He needs to prove it to the front office, too. Jones was the first offensive player general manager Ryan Poles took in his first draft. The third-round pick offered little on that side of the ball in Year 1, catching seven passes for 107 yards and running nine times for 103 yards. That’s unacceptable.
“I showed glimpses last year and stuff, not getting too much playing time,” Jones said. “Getting in enough and getting my feet wet just a little bit. I know what I’m capable of, and I’m definitely a unique player on this team.”
Jones ran a 4.31-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine two years ago. Since 2016, only three wide receivers have been faster. The challenge for the Bears’ coaching staff is to find ways to harness that speed, be it on sweeps, screens or returns. Jones, though, needs to help himself.
Jones didn’t return kicks in Saturday’s game — and wasn’t sure whether he would this preseason — but ranked third in the NFL with an average of 27.6 yards last year.
“They know the type of player they have in me,” he said. “They know what I’m capable of.”
Jones has one issue — and confidence isn’t it.
“I don’t care about any outside noise,” he said.
