After a disappointing outing against the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago Bears' special teams face another steep test against a formidable Philadelphia Eagles unit.
Since the Chicago Bears' 9-3 to the Minnesota Vikings, the team has undergone some changes on special teams. The Bears signed veteran long snapper Scott Daly off the New Orleans Saints practice squad and waived Beau Gardner.
“Scott’s a dependable, reliable piece,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “He loved being here. When you have a young long snapper, there sometimes are some growing pains, and we’re experiencing those. We just felt like it was the right thing to do for our team at that time.”
Daly spent the 2024-25 seasons in Chicago, but the Bears decided to go younger at the position this year. Gardner beat out Luke Elkin for the spot during Bears training camp and was the team's long snapper through Weeks 1 and 2, but that changed after the loss to the Vikings.
After quarterback Caleb Williams left the game with an injured hamstring, Chicago still had an opportunity to kick a field goal to tie the game at six, but Cairo Santo's 23-yard field goal was blocked and Minnesota would go on to win the game.
Johnson noted the day after the game that the field-goal operation was not clean. Gardner's snap was high and the timing was off for the entire unit. The Bears brought back Gardner, signing him to the practice squad. Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower explained the reasoning behind that move.
“Young player,” Hightower said. “Kid wants to be great. He really does. Young player wants to be great, just needs a little bit more seasoning. And that happens with long snappers. It's just not ready right now. But that happens with long snappers. Everybody has their druthers with long snappers. It just happens. And we're going to keep him encouraged and keep coaching him. And Scott is going to do a great job for us like he's done in the past. And Scott's a good man. Scott's going to help him along the way as well. Because that's just who Scott is.”
As for the operation on the blocked field goal, Hightower didn't go into detail on what exactly happened. He said on Friday that the unit “didn't execute our assignments” and the veteran coordinator told the team “unfortunately, it's disappointing.”
The Bears have corrected the operation, according to Hightower, and are now focused on the Philadelphia Eagles and the problems they present. He called the Eagles’ field goal block unit the best in the league since they have already blocked one field goal this year and blocked three last season.
Hightower highlighted the challenges of preparing for Philadelphia's unit.
“Yeah, just the personnel that they have, man,” Hightower said. “Jalen Carter is outstanding. He's an outstanding defensive player, you know that. They got big 90 in there, Davis in there. They've got big guys in there, man. They got some really good players in there. They do a really good job of getting off on the ball.”
The Bears will have to see if the corrections they made on special teams patch up the mistakes from the Week 2 loss. With the Bears likely entering the Monday night matchup against the Eagles shorthanded at quarterback, the team will never all three phases to elevate their play to end Week 3 with a much-needed victory.
