Velus Jones Jr. will have another shot with the Bears this season. The team made a big wave of cuts on Tuesday as it formed its first 53-man roster, and Jones Jr. earned a spot on the team.
Jones Jr. represented the biggest question mark when it came to roster projections this season. On one hand, he’s an intriguing playmaker with the ball in his hands and has the ability to score when he finds open space. That was on full display last season when Jones Jr. worked as a kick returner, and in the final preseason game of this year when Jones Jr. went completely untouched for a 39-yard touchdown run.
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On the other hand, Jones Jr. wasn’t able to have the perfectly clean preseason he would’ve wanted while fielding kicks. Jones Jr. drew the ire of fans in 2022 with two costly muffed punts that played a role in two losses. He fumbled once more while carrying the ball on offense. He muffed another punt in the 2023 preseason, which prompted the Bears to sign Trent Taylor at the end of training camp last year.
This year, Jones Jr. was the return man for two kickoffs in the preseason. He muffed one of them. He did not return a punt.
What made things even more difficult to predict is that the Bears all but officially changed Jones Jr.’s position halfway through the summer. Ahead of the team’s second preseason game of the year, coaches moved Jones Jr. from wide receiver to running back to see if he could make more plays by getting the ball in his hands directly. Even as he learned the new position, he looked impressive both in practice and in preseason games. Jones Jr. displayed the same burst we’ve seen from him on kickoff returns, and brought physicality to the room. His bigger frame helped him churn out extra yards as defenders tried to bring him down.
Where Jones Jr. ultimately plays– and how much he plays– are still a bit unknown. Two weeks ago, Eberflus wasn’t ready to reclassify Jones Jr. as a running back. That’s despite Jones Jr. remaining in the backfield long past the initial block of practices that were devoted to his RB experiment.
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It’s Jones Jr.’s lack of a clear position that might have earned him a spot on the team.
“If you're on the fringe of the roster, or a guy that is competing for that fifth, sixth spot at receiver, halfback, whatever it might be, the more you can do, if you're a four-core guy in special teams, the more you can utilize your talents across your base of the team, I believe that's a good thing,” Eberflus said earlier this month. “That's what he's doing.”