Bears Training Camp Shock: Tyler Scott’s Spot on the Roster Looks Slim to None!

The 2025 Chicago Bears training camp will soon be in full swing. Rookies report on Saturday, July 19, followed by veterans on Tuesday, July 22.

Head coach Ben Johnson has shared that all players will get a fresh look as they compete to make the roster. One player this is welcome news for is third-year wide receiver Tyler Scott.

Scott, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, was known as a big-play threat in college due to his speed. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.44 seconds at the combine and in 4.32 seconds at Cincinnati's pro day. In his final season as a Bearcat, he caught 54 receptions for 899 yards and 9 touchdowns. He averaged an eye-popping 44 yards on touchdown receptions.

Unfortunately, Scott has failed to replicate anywhere close to his college production since joining the Bears. As a rookie, he caught only seventeen passes (53.1% catch rate) for 168 yards. He also had seven carries for 41 yards. He struggled to track deep balls and was inconsistent in kick returns.

Last season, those same struggles continued. As a result, Scott was only active for 11 games. He had a single catch for five yards and eight kick returns in 2024. His best play of the year was a tackle on special teams.

Scott's best hope for making the 53-man roster is to have an outstanding training camp and give Johnson and assistant head coach and wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El a reason to keep him. Johnson likes having a speedy threat and Scott is the fastest among Bears receivers.

However, Scott must first show in Johnson's better-designed, better-timed, and better-executed offense that he can consistently make catches, including deep balls.

Johnson and Randel El would also need to believe Scott had more to offer than he's demonstrated previously. It's a possibility, as I don't think he was deployed to his strengths by previous play callers.

The clip below shows the type of play where Scott shined in college, which we haven't seen enough of in his time with the Bears. It's a crossing route into the middle of the field, where he catches it full stride and uses his special ability of turning on his afterburners and blowing past the defenders for a touchdown.

What made him dangerous in college wasn't as much his ability to haul in deep passes. It was his ability to rack up lots of yards after the catch in space on intermediate routes.

The challenge here is both Moore and Burden have even higher and more versatile yards after the catch ability. Their elusiveness allows them to generate yards after the catch no matter the route or depth, whereas Scott is more limited. He hasn't been as effective generating it outside of intermediate passes. That makes it a hard sell to make the roster for Scott just on this ability.

Here's also why Scott is a longshot.

1. There's a strong likelihood that the Bears will only carry five wide receivers on the roster, unlike the previous years, where they carried six or seven at times.

• Johnson only carried four in Detroit in 2024 and five in 2023 and 2022.
• The Bears will need to carry five wide receivers to offset carrying more players at other positions.
• Bears will likely carry three quarterbacks (Williams, Bagent and Keenum) versus two from 2024.
• There is also a chance the final roster will include ten offensive lineman, as Johnson did in Detroit last season, instead of nine as the Bears did in 2024.

2. With Moore, Odunze, Burden and veteran Zaccheaus as locks, Scott is competing with Duvernay for the final wide receiver spot. And Duvernay has the strong advantage over Scott of being a two-time Pro Bowl return specialist.

Even if Scott is fantastic the next six weeks, the numbers don't support him making the roster. More likely, the Bears will re-sign him in one of the veteran spots on the practice squad unless another team signs him after final roster cuts.