Matt Eberflus Couldn't Hide His Disappointment With Velus Jones after another horrible game this Sunday
Normally, I'm not a fan of giving up on a draft pick in his first year. I think every player deserves to have at least a full off-season before we fully judge them as a draft pick. However, Velus Jones could be an exception. Every sign point toward the fact that he was a terrible third-round selection.
He has dealt with plenty of failures during his rookie season, where he's been unable to carve out a role for himself on offense or special team. Jones has now made 4 fumbles and many drops on offense. He simply looks uncomfortable on the field. Remember now that when he was drafted, one of his "strengths" was supposed to be poised since he was selected at 25 years of age, which is very old for a rookie in this league.
Bears HC looked extremely dissapointed in his rookie after another frustrating outing for him this past Sunday.
«I would just say like anybody that goes through adversity, just be encouraging,» Eberflus said Monday. «Encourage them. Teach. Fundamentally teach what we need to do during that moment with the clasp hand and reaching five points of pressure. That's really it. Drill it and drill it and drill it.»
The problem is, Jones keeps making critical mistakes that have cost the team. So how does Eberflus handle that?
«I mean, would just say challenge,» Eberflus said. «You got to challenge em. So, with encouragement, you also have to challenge. You got to challenge them to do things right in practice every single time. You know it terms of catching the ball, violently tucking the ball and then keeping the ball tucked through traffic and all the way through the down. So that's what we really are going to do. We are going to challenge him to do that in practice and then we will see it in the games.»
He was asked if Jones' latest fumble could result in his losing playing time down the stretch.
«That's a discussion we have to have as a group,» Eberflus said. «We'll look at it during the course of the week and we'll assess that as we go.»
