The Chicago Bears are not prepared to let special teams specialist Josh Blackwell out of their site just yet. On the heels of the third-year cornerback’s breakthrough season, the Bears have agreed to extend Blackwell before the 2025 NFL free agency period officially opens.
The Bears and Blackwell agreeed to a two-year, $6 million extension ahead of the official free agency period, making him one of the highest-paid special teamers in the league, per NFL insider Ari Meirov. The deal will be the 25-year-old former undrafted free agent’s third with the team.
While Blackwell entered the league as a cornerback out of Duke, he has increasingly become an elite special teams asset. He appeared in all 17 games of 2024, taking the field for just nine percent of the team’s total defensive snaps but 65 percent of its special teams plays.
Once he fully transitioned to special teams, the Bears used Blackwell as a returner and gunner. He is best known for his role in Chicago’s wild Week 18 misdirection trick play, returning a punt 94 yards for a touchdown. The play put the Bears on the scoreboard in the first quarter against their rivals, the Green Bay Packers, in a game they would eventually win 24-22.
JOSH BLACKWELL TO THE HOUSE
: #CHIvsGB on FOX pic.twitter.com/nuFCFxCY7B
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) January 5, 2025
Overall, Blackwell recorded 10 tackles, two pass breakups and one interception in 2024. He returned seven punts for 146 total yards, averaging 20.8 yards per return. Blackwell was also a major factor in Bears punter Tory Taylor’s 34 punts downed inside the 20-yard line, which ranked fourth in the league.
Bears seek continued special teams success in 2025
Not much went well for the Bears in 2024, but special teams was one of the few areas they excelled in. Chicago ranked top-10 in both punting and punt returning and were one of just three teams who recovered an onside kick. As a result, new head coach Ben Johnson retained Richard Hightower as special teams coordinator. Hightower is one of the few members of Matt Eberflus’ staff who still remain with the team.
However, while the Bears excelled in punting, their kicking issues unfortunately returned. The usually reliable Cairo Santos hit just 84 percent of his field goals in 2024, his fewest since going just 4-for-9 in 2019. Santos ended the year with just 88 points, the fewest of his five-year tenure in Chicago.
Despite the performance struggles, Santos will likely return as the Bears’ special teams captain in 2025. Blackwell, however, is also an early candidate to become a new captain in his fourth year. The young, energetic cornerback is already evidently one of the team’s emotional leaders in that aspect of the game.
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