The Bears struggled to return kicks effectively during the first half of the 2015 season as Marc Mariani was near the bottom of the league in yards per return average and also had some ball security issues.
Mariani improved as the season went on, but the Bears replaced him with Deonte Thompson, whom they elevated from the practice squad for the last seven games of the season. Thompson averaged 29.2 yards per kick once he took over, which would have been good for 2nd best in the league if he had enough returns to qualify. The Vikings Cordarrelle Patterson led the league with 31.