Shaw Local’s 2022 Bears report card: Special teams

When he was hired last year, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus brought Richard Hightower to Chicago to be his special teams coordinator. Hightower returned to Halas Hall, where he briefly coached for one season in 2016, after five years as the special teams coordinator with San Francisco.

At the same time, general manager Ryan Poles began a wholesale revamp of the roster. With that came changes on special teams. Notably, he allowed longtime Bears punter Pat O’Donnell walk away in free agency. Poles drafted rookie receiver Velus Jones Jr. to be the organization’s next great return man – with mixed results.

Here’s everything that went well and everything that didn’t on special teams in 2022.

Positives

In his third season with the Bears, kicker Cairo Santos continued to be rock solid as a place kicker. He made 21 of 23 field goal tries. His 91.3% field goal success rate nearly matched his team-record 93.8% on field goals from 2020. Those are the top two marks in team history, just ahead of Robbie Gould’s best season in 2013 when Gould made 89.7% of his tries.

Jones struggled as a punt returner, but finished with the fourth-highest kick return average in the NFL. He ended the season with a 27.6-yard average. His 63-yard return against the Detroit Lions on Jan. 1 was his longest. The Bears hadn’t had a kick return man finish in the top five in average since Cordarrelle Patterson left.

The Bears drafted punter Trenton Gill out of NC State with a seventh-round pick. Gill proved a reliable rookie punter for the team as it looked to replace O’Donnell. He really impressed his coaches with his work ethic as a holder on kicks. Hightower describes Gill as one of the team’s hardest workers.

Negatives

Despite the field goal success, Santos five extra points, more than he ever has in his career. It was a strange season for him on extra points. It started with two misses in the soggy Week 1 win over the 49ers. Given the crazy weather conditions, that game can be forgiven.

Jones struggled early in the season with fumbles on several key punt returns. The Bears had hoped that he could be an ace return specialist as both a kick returner and a punt returner. In 2023, Jones has to regain some confidence in himself on punt returns. He fumbled in Week 4 against the Giants and Week 6 against the Commanders, both one-possession games in the fourth quarter.

Defining moments

1. The Bears used their third-round draft pick, 71st overall, on Jones. It was their third pick of the draft and their third pick on day two after Poles previously drafted cornerback Kyler Gordon and safety Jaquan Brisker. Jones was the Co-SEC Special Teams Player of the Year at Tennessee in 2021.

2. Moments after Roquan Smith intercepted Houston Texans’ QB Davis Mills, Santos knocked a 30-yard field goal through the uprights for a Bears win, 23-20, as the clock struck zero in Week 3. It’s crazy to think that this Bears team was once 2-1.

3. A week later in New Jersey, Jones muffed a punt with just over three minutes remaining in an eight-point game against the New York Giants. The muff all but sunk the Bears in their comeback attempt. They didn’t get the ball back again until the clock was down to 17 seconds.

It proved to be the first of two critical muffs by Jones on punt returns. He lost the punt return job a few weeks later. Dante Pettis served as the punt returner for the remainder of the season.

Contract status

Santos has one more season on his contract. Gill has three remaining on his rookie deal, as does Jones. Long snapper Pat Scales is set to become a free agent. Pettis is set to become a free agent. Running backs Khalil Herber and Trestan Ebner also returned kicks and remain under contract.

Grade: C+

Santos needs to make his extra points. The Bears need to find a reliable punt return man.

Plan

The Bears should look to keep Santos, Gill and Scales together as kicker, holder and long snapper, respectively. They developed a nice chemistry last season.

Jones showed down the stretch that he has the potential to be an elite kick returner. That job will likely be his to lose. That’s not the case on punt return, though. That job will likely be an open competition in training camp.