Hightower on special teams competition |
LAKE FOREST, I.L. - Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower will value the preseason more this season than usual.
With the drastic kickoff rule change, the preseason offers the best chance to examine a team's approach to the rule and the best way to execute it. “We’re going to watch the preseason as well, more in-depth than we’ve ever watched it. At times, coaches kind of watch the preseason. That’s offense, defense and special teams,” Hightower said. “But, people don’t really do anything in the preseason, a ton of stuff, because they want to try to play their cards close to the vest. But, this preseason, I think you’re going to have to experiment with it. So, we’re going to see some more different things on kickoff. So, I’m excited as heck for it.” When Chicago drafted a punter in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, it seemed a guarantee that Tory Taylor would be the starting punter for the Bears in the upcoming season. However, he is currently competing with left-footed kicker Corliss Waitman. Having these two kickers also provides an opportunity for the returners to get used to a variety of kicking styles. “Most of the returners right now are talking about the flight of his ball and how it travels differently and when having two punters in camp right now. With (punter) Corliss (Waitman), the spin is different with a lefty punter as well. So, they say Tory’s footballs hang up there quite a bit,” Hightower said. “They’re both hard to catch. But, he has a lot of tricks in his bag … He’s doing an outstanding job and our returners are getting better and there’s a lot of competition there. So, this will ramp up here and be exciting as we go into the preseason.” Chicago’s kick returner is also not clear. Training camp and the four preseason games the Bears have, including their upcoming game on Thurs. Aug. 1 in the Hall of Fame game against the Houston Texans (7 p.m./ABC) provides Coach Hightower with the perfect opportunity to determine a starting kick returner or see if the Bears will have a rotation of kick returners going into the season. “We got (wide receiver) Rome (Odunze). We got (receiver) DeAndre Carter. We got (receiver Dante) Pettis. We got (receiver) Velus (Jones) … We got (cornerback) Tyrique (Stevenson), who’s itching … (receiver) DJ Moore does it. So, (we’re) just training them all because guess what? We never know what situation we’re going to be in in a football game. So, we got to get all of them ready. I don’t know who the guy is going to be.” Third round draft pick Velus Jones is going into his third NFL season. His first two seasons have been underwhelming as he only played 11 percent of the offensive snaps last season, but averaged 27.2 yards per kickoff return. Jones has a unique combination of size and speed that makes him a good option for returner under the new kickoff rule. Choosing the best returner is essential to help the Bears offensively, and having the right punter at the beginning of the season is critical to getting Chicago good field position defensively. “I just think with a player like his size, six foot, 200 plus pounds that can run a 4.31, they don’t make guys like that everyday with that type of speed and that type of size. So, him having a ball in his hand four or five more times a game, gives him a chance to bring some excitement and some really good field position, we’re hoping for (quarterback) Caleb (Williams) or whoever the returner is back there. But, the shorter field that we can give Caleb, the better chance we have to win games because football’s a territorial battle,” Hightower said. “It’s all about field position and that’s where special teams plays a critical role that if they can shorten the field for the offense and create long fields, i.e. guys like Tory, some of those balls he put at the one yard line today, now you’re not driving 99 yards on (head coach Matt Eberflus) and (defensive coordinator) Coach (Eric) Washington. It’s not happening. So, that’s the type of things we’re striving for and that’s the type of unit we want to build to add value to the rest of the team.”
