The Chicago Bears managed to thread the needle between the start of training camp and the end of the preseason without any significant injuries. Well, for the most part. Unfortunately, their ageless long snapper Patrick Scales wasn’t able to maintain his uncanny stretch of games without missing time. A back injury sidelined him this past month and it’s gotten bad enough to where he will require surgery. This forced GM Ryan Poles to quickly pivot, trying to find help on short notice. The Bears decided to go with veteran Scott Daly.
On the surface, the move makes sense. Daly has snapping experience across the NFL, XFL, and AAF. Most recently, he was the snapper for the Detroit Lions from 2021 through 2023. What makes the move so on-brand for the organization isn’t his track record. It is where he was born.
Daly is a native of Downers Grove, just 40 minutes outside of downtown Chicago.
The Bears have built a reputation since Poles took over by targeting players who have local roots. Jack Sanborn, T.J. Edwards, Lucas Patrick, Kiran Amegadjie, and Doug Kramer are all examples of this. Poles holds the belief that players always seem to bring a little extra to the field when they’re playing in front of their hometown fans. He’s not wrong. Edwards was phenomenal last year. Sanborn has been a terrific find as an undrafted free agent. No doubt he thinks Daly will want to put his best foot forward, knowing his friends and family will be in close proximity this season. It also allows him to fulfill a measure of revenge on Patrick Scales. Daly signed with Chicago as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Unfortunately, Scale was already established as the starter by that point. It is crazy to think he’d return seven years later to fulfill his original dream.
