Not long after the Chicago Bears drafted Cincinnati wide receiver Tyler Scott in the fourth round Saturday, Scott tweeted a video of the moment he received the Bears’ call.
Above the clip of him putting on a Bears hat to the cheers of family and friends, he wrote a message to quarterback Justin Fields.
“EXACTLY who I wanted to draft me all along!!” Scott tweeted. “Time to get to work @justnfields.”
Scott grew up an Ohio State fan in northeast Ohio and has followed Fields’ career since he played there. He called the Bears quarterback “a playmaker, a guy that’s doing whatever it takes to win, whether that’s throwing or running.”
Now Scott is one of three offensive players the Bears drafted to help Fields win in his third year in the league.
“Just being a part of that offense is going to be fun,” Scott said.
By the end of the draft Saturday night, Bears general manager Ryan Poles had added a speedy rookie in Scott. He used another fourth-round pick on Texas running back Roschon Johnson, the backup to No. 8 pick Bijan Robinson. And of course the Bears used their first-round pick Thursday night to take Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright at No. 10.
In addition to the rookies, the Bears this offseason added No. 1 wide receiver DJ Moore in the trade of the No. 1 pick to the Carolina Panthers. And they signed guard Nate Davis, tight end Robert Tonyan, running back D’Onta Foreman and backup quarterback P.J. Walker in free agency.
About the only area the Bears didn’t address was center, but veterans Cody Whitehair and Lucas Patrick return there.
When Poles sat in front of reporters at the end of the draft at Halas Hall, he was asked a key question: Is that enough to significantly improve the offense?
“You want to support your quarterback. We all know that’s where it starts,” Poles said. “So you want to surround him with talent. We had to wait a little bit to do it the way we wanted to do it, and I think we found some good opportunities to do that.
“Solidify and improve the O-line, make sure that we have the running game to stay balanced and then give him different types of receivers and different threats to create separation so more big plays can be made and you can grow your confidence and get in a rhythm.”
Scott, who is 5-foot-10 and weighs 177 pounds, was a running back in high school but converted to wide receiver at Cincinnati. Three years of growth at the position resulted in a breakout 2022 season in which he had 54 catches for 899 yards and nine touchdowns.
The Bears believe Scott, who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds at his pro day, brings big-play ability downfield, with scout Ryan Cavanaugh saying, “Justin’s going to like throwing to him deep.” Poles thinks Scott will continue to develop with more coaching, but he said Scott’s top-end speed helps buy him time to make that growth.
“Do you have the tools that you can’t teach?” Poles said. “And that’s speed, so he has one box checked. Then there’s the player himself and the work ethic and the time they’re going to put into the details. That’s what this level is all about are the details on how to do things the right way so that you have proper timing, proper separation, all of that.
“He checks all of those boxes, so I know with good coaching and his hard work that he’s going to put in, too, that he can take that next step and add the details of route-running with the speed. And that will be a deadly combination.”
Scott’s excitement about joining the Bears came with more than just cursory knowledge of the organization.
Beyond being a fan of Fields, Scott said he loved watching Bears great Gale Sayers on film when he was growing up. One of his dad’s favorite players is Dick Butkus. And when his dad goes out in public, people approach to say, “Hey, I’ve just got to ask, are you Mike Singletary?”
“I love collecting sports cards, and so I’ve got Mike Singletary’s rookie card,” Scott said. “I ended up looking at it, and I’m like, ‘OK, that definitely does look like my dad.’”
Johnson, a 6-foot, 219-pounder who was a high school quarterback, also converted to a new position in college and rushed for 2,190 yards and 23 touchdowns over four seasons at Texas — playing behind Robinson the last three years.
Poles said Johnson will add competition to a running backs room that includes Foreman and Khalil Herbert. He said Johnson gives the Bears a good pass protector and with his quarterback skills even might allow the offensive staff to “do some really cool things with him and keep a defense on their toes.”
The Bears praised Johnson for his intangibles as well as his on-field performance. Scout John Syty said that when he visited Texas, staffers all over the facility said Johnson was the hardest-working player in the building.
“This human being is wired differently,” Syty said. “The more time you spend around him, the more you realize that you are probably the one who has things you need to work on, not him. He’s that kind of guy.
“I’ve been doing this now for five or six years and just thinking back as we’re making that pick, I don’t know if I’ve ever written a guy with as much character as him. This is a special, special human being.”
The Day 3 additions of Scott and Johnson came on top of Wright, the 6-5, 333-pound tackle who coach Matt Eberflus declared in the post-draft news conference is “going to be a force in there.” While Scott and Johnson join position groups with plenty of competition, Wright arrives at Halas Hall with the expectation the Bears can count on him to be the starting right tackle off the bat.
“An outstanding person and great worker and you can see the raw traits for him to be able to really improve and get better,” Eberflus said. “And he’s already good.”
The next step after all the additions, Poles said, is getting the group together to begin to build chemistry. The Bears host their new rookies at minicamp next weekend.
“It has got to come together,” Poles said. “But I feel like on paper right now we’ve done a really good job to surround (Fields) with the talent.”
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