Alex Brown has seen enough of Velus Jones. The second-year Bears wide receiver had another game filled with mistakes in the team’s 30-13 loss to the Chargers on Sunday Night Football, including a big dropped touchdown with no defenders near him.
That was the last straw for Brown.
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“This should be his last game on the roster,” Brown said on NBC Sports Chicago’s “Football Aftershow” following the game. “It really should. It should be his last game. This is ridiculous. That touchdown changes the whole game. It changes everything in that moment.”
The Bears eventually scored on that same drive, so the mistake didn’t cost the Bears any points in the end, but the drop briefly took the wind out of their sails when it could’ve been a big spark. It also meant the Bears had to burn another three and a half minutes of game clock when the team was trying to climb out of a 17-0 first-half deficit.
“That touchdown only scores six points, I get that, but we don’t know how this game plays out if he catches that touchdown,” Brown said. “He doesn’t catch it, so it changes the whole narrative of the game.”
The drop wasn’t Jones’ only mistake, it was just his most-glaring mistake. Jones also opted to take the opening kickoff out of the end zone, but only managed to bring the ball out to the 21-yard line. The Bears would’ve had the ball at the 25 if Jones had taken a knee for a touchback. Later in the first quarter, he committed a fair-catch interference on a Bears punt. That gave the Chargers great field position at their own 45-yard line. Los Angeles ended up scoring a touchdown on that drive.
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Bears GM Ryan Poles selected Jones in the third round of the 2022 draft. Jones has made some splash plays, typically as a kick returner or when running the ball out of the backfield. However his short tenure with the team has been marked more often by big mistakes rather than positive impacts. Jones lost his job as the team’s punt returner after several muffed catches last season, and this preseason.