Bears Acknowledge Embattled Rookie's Gaffes But Lend Support

What the Bears thought of the play

“Yeah, you just go over to play with him, show him the pictures," Hightower said. "You go over the play. There's a two-fold thing there. He's still got to play more football, so you have to gauge the player and gauge where that player is.

"You've got to know your players inside and out. We have a conversation on the sideline, and I think he was good for the rest of the game. I know a lot's being said about that play, and then obviously it wasn't a good play at the end of it. We all know that. We all know the ball was stationary. It wasn't a good play."

Hightower hasn't given up on Roush.

“He is always very inquisitive," Hightower said. "When he doesn't do what he expected to do, and he always comes up and he always wants to do extra meetings and wants to know why, and he wants to get it fixed.

"Obviously, he's frustrated about that play, as everyone is, but I can tell you he's never going to quit. He's going to work his tail off, and he did some other good things in the ballgame, but that one he'd like to have back.”

What made the entire thing worse was how perfect the play unfolded for the Bears.

"But what I want to shed light on is the fact that we were in a plus-50 situation there, and the protection was excellent," Hightower said. "Tory (Taylor) hit a phenomenal ball. He's punting his tail off right now, and not enough has been said about that either. He's been doing a great job. He put that ball right there on the 1-(yard line). Blackwell did a freaking phenomenal job of batting that ball back. That was so great by him, and those don't happen often."

Hightower didn't mince words when describing the importance of the mistake. Definitely Bears fans on social media didn't, either.

"So those plays are big, huge impact plays that we've got to have, and when we get in those situations, we need to deliver for the team," he said.

The blocked kick from the Vikings game had some veterans, who normally wouldn't be on special teams, wanting to be involved at protecting for kicks.

“I will tell you that we have guys fighting to get on that field goal team," Hightower said. "That field goal team was not happy with what happened the week before against Minnesota. They know it shouldn't have ever happened, and they're very prideful. Joe (Thuney) wasn't the only one that wanted to be involved. Dayo (Odeyingbo) wanted to be involved. (Montez) Sweat wanted to be involved. We've got leaders that wanted to be involved, and I think that speaks to the culture that (GM) Ryan (Poles) and (coach) Ben (Johnson) have created here, where guys want to be out there and they want to do it.

"We had (OL) Braxton (Jones) go down in the game, and we had to make an in-game adjustment, and (Garrett) Bradbury stepped in and did something that he hadn't done in a while and did a phenomenal job at it. That was the best field goal block unit in the NFL (Philadelphia)."

Thuney, their All-Pro guard, has already appeared in five special teams plays, which is half the amount for all 17 games last season.

"They (Philadelphia) blocked the most kicks in the NFL (in 2025), and our guys didn't like what happened (against) Minnesota, and they bowed up after what happened, and they did a phenomenal job against that unit, phenomenal," Hightower said. "Joe Thuney is a stud and, in my mind, he's a Hall of Famer, but there’s a reason why he's going to be. It's because of the way he works. He was not a guy that was going to let anything happen. He did everything he could do to help us win that game, and we just need more people like that.”

The Bears may need to be more judicious with their use of personnel on special teams to keep Roush away from damaging things further.

They'll have to live with it

One option they can't really consider would be to leave him inactive and promote someone from the practice squad to fill the third tight end role and play special teams. Injuries have occupied at least one player who could do this. Iowa product Hayden Large is on injured reserve and would be just the type of player to provide this support.

Regardless, Roush is a rookie third-round pick who needs to learn from his mistakes. They've had more than enough bad experiences with third-round players recently, including Velus Jones Jr., Zacch Pickens, and Kiran Amegadjie. They'll simply need to retain Roush on the active roster, coach him up and get him through this formative part of his career until he provides the support on special teams most third tight ends will in the league.

The real problem this week from the Jets for special teams appears to be on the other side of this, with stopping undrafted kick returner Isaiah Williams, who won the Jets' Curtis Martin Team MVP award last year. There is an example here for Roush as Williams initially struggled to make special teams plays. He fumbled the second-half kickoff in a game and called a fair catch at his own 3-yard line. He was cut, but came back from the practice squad to average 12.5 yards on 39 punt returns and 30.5 for kick returns..

With many more special teams mistakes, Roush might just need a comeback like Williams made last year.