Jakeem Grant Takes a Shot at Miami Dolphins

Jakeem Grant came to the Bears solving a problem they had with no punt returner. 

It seems Grant has more ability than special teams, although he says his former team didn't believe this.

Grant's 97-yard punt return for a touchdown set a Bears record for longest punt return Sunday night in the 45-30 loss to Green Bay but it was his 46-yard TD on a jet sweep that fired up the Bears offense. That play meant one more speed receiver for Justin Fields is finding a niche.

"You know, in Miami, yeah, they totally gave up on me on the offense and as you can see I'm getting put on offense and I'm doing great things here with the Bears and so I love that because that was always my message to push that I'm a receiver first and then a returner," Grant said.

Grant came over for a seventh-round draft pick in a preseason trade. The role on offense he had wasn't apparent initially because he had one catch for minus-7 yards until wide receivers Allen Robinson and Marquise Goodwin both were out with injuries in the Thanksgiving win over Detroit. 

The Bears had to work Grant in more on offense and he made two catches for 25 yards, then five for 62 against Arizona.

"They honestly trusted me right off the back and they just told me that, you know, 'we got to get you in, we got to get you to learn the plays' and 'we're going to put you out there as soon as you get a hold of the plays,' " Grant said. "And that's all I needed from you know any coaches and any offense is just to be able to trust me to go out there."

Grant didn't catch an actual pass against the Packers. It was a jet sweep, but the flip forward constitutes a pass for stat purposes and he got around the edge on the left side to a huge gap before turning on his speed."

"It was outstanding blocking," Grant said. "It was just a jet sweep and once I got around the edge I saw a wide-open hole and I just hit it and, like i said, man it was just every guy was on on somebody and all I had to do was just use my speed to get into the end zone."

NextGen Stats clocked Grant at 20.86 miles per hour on the jet sweep but he was even faster on the 97-yard punt return that broke the Bears' 31-year-old record of 95 yards set by Johnny Bailey. Grant was said to have gone 21.33 mph, fastest by any Bears ball carrier this season. 

In Grant's mind, making the first punt return TD in the NFL this season helped to atone for a mistake last week against Arizona when he failed to field a punt that pinned the Bears back.

"Like I said last week previously, I wish I could have had that one back; I put my team in a bad field position last week," Grant said. "So this is the biggest thing on my mind this week."

The punt return took some maneuvering.

"Honestly I had no plan at all," Grant said. "I caught the ball and I was like if you could see I kind of like sat there for a second and I went to the right and I was like 'oh wait there's too many people over here.' "  

When Grant reversed course to the left edge, his eyes lit up.

"And once i got around the edge, I was like 'oh yeah house call. It's the punter (left). That's it OK. It's easy.' " he said. "So, oh man, it was beautiful."

When Grant found out about what he was clocked at, he wasn't surprised.

"That's actually pretty cool but that's not even my fastest," Grant said. "I just always tell people that I run fast enough just to get past somebody so I always tell them if I'm running at 20 or 21 (mph) Nobody's going to catch me."

The Packers came in with the worst punt coverage unit in the NFL.

"Yeah, I mean going off of the last game we totally got after them on special teams," Grant said. "And you know coach (coordinator Chris Tabor) he told us it's gonna be a big return game and I was like 'that's my type of game coach.' "

Grant was actually under a little pressure to produce on punt returns, or at least some kidding.

"A lot of my teammates were like, you came (here) I thought you was like the best return man in the league and I'm like, 'I am,' " Grant said. "They were like, 'I don't know. You don't have a return under your belt yet,' so that was that and I finally got one.

"Then it was like, 'OK, now we see it.' "

Considering he did it on national TV, everyone does now.