The Bears have been as patient as can be, even to their detriment at times, with Velus Jones and his struggles with muffs and fumbles. They benched him Sunday for muffing a kickoff that gave the Titans the ball just outside the red zone. It’s difficult to imagine him getting another shot as a returner.
Special-teams coordinator Richard Hightower said he didn’t want to “make the whole press conference about Velus” on Thursday but also gave an unvarnished evaluation of his play.
“I don’t sugarcoat anything . . . it’s unacceptable,” he said of Jones’ turnover. “We value the ball, and on that particular play, we didn’t, and it hurt the team.”
Hightower has been Jones’ coach his entire career and has repeatedly defended him publicly. The hard reality that he can’t be trusted to secure the ball as a return man has been disappointing.
“As a human, I hurt for the kid — I really do,” he said. “But as a coach, we have to evaluate all of our options.”
The Bears opened the game with Jones and running back Khalil Herbert back deep to return kicks but replaced Jones with veteran returner DeAndre Carter. Carter, the team’s primary punt returner, took his first kickoff 67 yards to set up a scoring drive.
General manager Ryan Poles took Jones in the third round (No. 71 overall) in 2022 as part of his first draft class. Jones never found a role at wide receiver and moved to running back last month.
Mix and match
The Bears went into the season with a talented but thin group of wide receivers. Their depth dwindled against Tennessee when Tyler Scott was a healthy scratch and DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze got hurt during the game.
With Odunze (knee) unlikely to play Sunday night at the Texans and Allen (heel) in question, the offense needs to patch together a crew of receiving options. Both missed practice Thursday.
Wide receivers coach Chris Beatty said Scott is “going to get some opportunities here coming up,” and that while Carter has played predominantly on special teams the last two seasons, “a lot of people don’t know how good he is.”
Beatty also mentioned the possibility of using Jones at receiver, though the Bears opted for Carter over him against the Titans and even had running back D’Andre Swift line up wide.
Carter played 13 snaps on offense, his second-most in the last two seasons. He had career highs of 46 catches, 538 yards and three touchdowns for the Chargers in 2022.
Passing-game coordinator Thomas Brown also floated a workaround with tight ends Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett filling in at receiver.
“We have supreme trust in every receiver we have active on game day but also the benefit of having those two tight ends active,” Brown said.
“We can use Gerald in some scenarios where he’s going to be in the slot as a receiver.”
Diggs in
Texans four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs is a longtime Bears headache, though they’ve seen him only once since the Vikings traded him to the Bills in 2020.
Diggs has 54 catches for 602 yards and seven touchdowns in nine career games against the Bears, including a monster game in 2018 of 13 catches for 126 yards and a touchdown.
This and that
• Rookie defensive end Austin Booker, a compelling prospect in training camp, got only six plays in the opener. Defensive coordinator Eric Washington brushed it off and said, “He’s done nothing to lose our confidence.”
• Ryan Bates shared time at right guard with Nate Davis but missed practice because of an ongoing shoulder issue.
• Defensive end DeMarcus Walker, a mainstay who missed practice Wednesday with a foot injury, was back to partial participation.