Bear Digest

Tyler Scott Finding Bears Niche Despite Receiver Expansion

Tyler Scott has a new jersey number, is down the depth chart because of roster additions at his position but has found a way to be impactful through six practices.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears wide receiver Tyler Scott signs autographs for the crowd at Saturday's sixth Bears training camp practice.
Bears wide receiver Tyler Scott signs autographs for the crowd at Saturday's sixth Bears training camp practice. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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Bears second-year receiver Tyler Scott might have come as close to nailing down the differences between the team's new offense under Shane Waldron and Luke Getsy's offense in 2022-23.

"There's different adjustments and a little bit more freedom as far as what we can do, as far as looks, because every defense is not gonna play the same," Scott said. "Every look isn't gonna be the same on every play. You might have things drawn up a certain way, but I feel like Shane, he talks about the game being a game of chaos, and how you draw things up a certain way and you want them to look a certain way, but that's not how football is every time.

"There's gonna be looks that you may not get. There may be just imperfections in to the game. So I feel like he understands that and so some things are built in to kind of compensate for those imperfections. And just kind of allow you to play ball."

The Bears will have an answer, is basically how they see it under Waldron.

For Scott, it would be easy to see how he wouldn't get to have much use for this knowledge. When the Bears traded for Keenan Allen and drafted Rome Odunze, Scott dropped from the potential budding young receiver in the attack to the fourth guy down the list.

He might even be No. 5 if they deem DeAndre Carter's contributions to be more than special teams.

Scott didn't even get to keep his old jersey number. Allen took it, so now Scott has gone from No. 13 to No. 10.

"I don't necessarily worry about that or kinda look at it in that way, but I understand those things and there's a reality to it for sure," Scott said. "But I think for me, it's just whenever my opportunity comes, whether it's two plays, one play here, making the best of those plays.

"That’s the best thing I can do because that's the thing I can control. I have faith in the coaching staff to put me in position to show what I can do and when they do, I gotta be able to show what I can do."

Go down the list of receivers making highlight-type catches in the first six practices of training camp and it seems Scott is doing exactly as he sees necessary to stand out. No one rates as more impactful than Scott to date. He's been the deep guy at the Z-receiver position who benefit most from Caleb Williams' big arm.

Even with the new offense, Scott says he has found that proverbial spot where everything is easier. It's because he has been around a year and knows how the pro game is played.

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"When I'm at that point now, the game just feels so much slower for me," he said. "I can look up, see what's going on, see what's in front of me. I can expect the anticipation.

"That's the biggest thing. I can expect when I'm probably going to get the ball, when I may not get the ball. So, I feel like as a player, once you get to that point, things start to slow down."

It would have been very easy for him to go into pout mode after a rookie year when he made 17 catches for 168 yards and came within a slight overthrow of making two or three huge receptions that might have made a difference between a loss and a win.

He took a mature approach to the acquisition of Allen, Odunze and Carter.

"You try not to look at all those things that are going on, all the noise that's going on, because we definitely had a loud offseason for sure," he said. "For me, it was just like, OK, those things are going to happen. That's the nature of the game, the nature of the business.

"So for me it's just blocking those things out and what I like to say is work in my bubble, my square and just focus on the things I can control. I wouldn't say it's a huge mindset change, because it's something that I've always felt. Something that my dad always taught me growing up was no matter who's on the field, be the best player out there. So that's always been my mindset and I want to be able to prove that."

For Scott, it means doing a better job of making his strongest asset felt. It probably wasn't last year at 9.8 yards a catch, considering he ran 4.44 in the 40 at the combine and 4.39 at his Cincinnati pro day.

"Yeah, I mean, for me, it's just using my speed," he said. "Using my speed on DBs all the time. Just really feel it. Whenever I’m on the field, just feeling that presence.

"I mean, I'm in a (receiver) room, we have so many different guys with so many different things. It's just understanding what I can do to affect the game. I think that's the biggest thing, is being able to do that."

Scott is not only avoiding attitude problems about being knocked down the pecking order of receivers, but is using the acquisition of Allen and Carter to benefit his game. He's taking the experience of the older receivers and using it to make his own game better.

"We got Keenan is going 12 (years), DeAndre is going 10-plus, Dante (Pettis) is seven, DJ (Moore, seven)," Scott said. "You got a lot of years in the room. You got some young guys.

"So, I feel like it's just a great complement as far as experience and youngness coming together because those young guys can learn from those older guys, and vice versa. I feel like Ryan Poles did a great job putting that room together."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.