When the Bears drafted Tyler Scott in the fourth-round the team talked about him as a raw receiver with impressive speed. They knew his route running could use some polishing, but with DJ Moore, Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney in the fold, they didn’t need him to do too much in the offense as a rookie. If he could take the top off the defense a few times to help Justin Fields make a few more explosive plays, it would be a good start.
As the regular season approaches, though, it appears Scott may be able to help the team further on special teams. With Velus Jones Jr. sidelined with an undisclosed injury for the team’s final preseason game, it was Scott who acted as the primary return man for the bulk of the day.
“We’ve been impressed with him the whole time,” said head coach Matt Eberflus. “Honestly he’s very smart and learning the offense really fast. Can play multiple positions, now in the kicking game.”
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Scott had three kick return opportunities and two punt return opportunities on the day. His first two kicks weren’t anything special. Scott fielded each from one yard deep in the endzone, took one to the 21-yard line and one to the 18-yard line. Given that it’s the preseason and coaches want to evaluate how players block and cut on returns, Scott was asked to be aggressive taking the ball out if it was kicked too deep into the endzone, so he can’t be faulted for not taking a knee to set up the offense on the 25. Those two kicks were also important because they set up Scott’s best play of the day: a 56-yarder on his third kick return.
“I was just seeing how guys were coming out, how they were flowing,” Scott said. “By the third one, me and the special teams coach, Coach (Richard) Hightower, we were on the same page. It was like ‘Let’s take it, let’s bounce it and let’s wrap around. The second one I took it outside and I cut up, so the third one I said I’m going to take it and run to the sideline, and try to outrun everybody.”
Scott opted not to return either of the two punts he fielded, instead he called for two fair catches. The first one was perfect. Scott was inside the 10-yard line, got out of the way and let the ball bounce into the endzone for a touchback. The second was a little dicier. It was in the middle of the field, so Scott had to catch the ball. At the last moment it knifed away from him and he had to adjust quickly to make the catch, but he did. In the end, no muff, no problem. Part of that can be chalked up to the swirling winds at Soldier Field, which Scott is still learning to read.
“This is definitely the windiest day I’ve had just catching,” Scott said. “It’s definitely different. You see the ball, the way it’s falling, but when it gets to the bottom it’ll do different things. The wind definitely has an effect here.”
NFL
Right now Jones Jr. is still the team’s primary return man, but things can change quickly in the NFL. He may not recover from his injury quickly enough to play Week 1. Or maybe, he’ll muff some punts in practice, like he did in the Bears’ first preseason game. Last season, the Bears had Dante Pettis to turn to when needed, but Pettis is on IR, so the team needs a new Plan B. If the Bears need to make a change for whatever reason, Saturday’s preseason finale was exactly the type of game that can give coaches confidence in Scott to take over if called upon.