Carter has been in the NFL since 2015 when he signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent. With Tuesday’s news, the Bears are now his 10th NFL team. During his NFL career, Carter has returned a total of 250 kickoffs and punts in 94 games. As a member of the Las Vegas Raiders last season, he ranked 11th in the league in punt-return average (9.7 yards) and 13th in kick-return average (23.8 yards).
Chicago’s decision to add Carter to its roster seems to be a bad sign for Bears wide receiver Velus Jones Jr., who has been the team’s primary kick returner for the last two seasons. Jones actually had a higher kick-return average (27.2 yards) than Carter in 2023, but his experience as a punt returner in the NFL is lacking.
Since he entered the league in 2022 after Chicago drafted him with a third-round pick, Jones has returned only five punts, while Carter has 132 punt returns throughout his NFL career.
Instead of having one player return kickoffs and another return punts, perhaps the Bears are interested in creating an additional roster spot by using someone like Carter, who can perform both of the return specialist duties.
If this is the case, then Jones’ time with Chicago could be coming to a close in the near future.
The Bears have struggled to figure out how to use him in their offense in the last two seasons (just 11 catches in 26 career appearances), and this probably isn’t going to change after the team added veteran Keenan Allen and rookie Rome Odunze to their wide receiver room this offseason.
Jones’ skills as a kick returner are essentially the only way in which he’s been able to make an impact on Chicago since 2022. If the Bears decide to make Carter their new return specialist, then there isn’t much of a point in keeping Jones around for the upcoming season.
Most were already expecting Jones to have to fight for a roster spot in Chicago’s training camp this summer. But with the Bears’ latest signing, the difficulty of that fight seems like it’s much higher than it was just 24 hours ago.
