Bears general manager Ryan Pace had just finished his annual pre-draft press conference Tuesday, walking out the doors of the Halas Hall media room, when word leaked of a decision that could shape how the team solves its biggest question mark.
Kicker Robbie Gould requested a trade from the 49ers, he confirmed Tuesday. A source said he wants to play closer to Chicago, where his family has remained during his stints with the Giants and 49ers.
The Bears still haven’t fixed their placekicker problem, and Gould is open about his affinity for Chicago. In February, he said the city “will always be home, no matter what.”
However, the Bears’ cost to acquire Gould — in terms of cash and draft capital — could be prohibitive.
The 49ers issued Gould a $5 million franchise tag in February, which would have made him the league’s highest-paid kicker in 2019. Gould has yet to sign it, preferring to use the deal as a template for a long-term contract. The two sides have until July 15 to reach a long-term agreement, per league rules.
However, the Bears’ all-time leading scorer reached an impasse with the 49ers. With no deal in place, Gould skipped the 49ers’ voluntary workouts, kicking in the Chicago area instead.
The 36-year-old indicated that, if the 49ers don’t trade him, he would not report to the team until the first week of the regular season. 49ers general manager John Lynch told reporters Monday, however, that “Robbie’s going to be part of us this coming year” and that the team “would like it to be longer than that.” He admitted, though, that the 49ers were interested in Stephen Gostkowski before he decided to re-sign with the Patriots earlier this month.
The timing of Gould’s request is telling, in terms of leverage — doing so before the draft allows the 49ers to drum up interest from teams, like the Bears, who will consider adding a kicker later this week. If a trade is consummated, the 49ers could conceivably draft Gould’s replacement.
Gould could be the final piece on a Bears team with only a few holes left to fill. The Bears, though, spent the offseason resisting the urge to throw money at their kicker problem. After cutting Cody Parkey — and knowing they’d owe him $3.5 million whether he played for them or not — they backfilled the position on the cheap. The three kickers they’ve signed — Redford Jones, Chris Blewitt and Elliott Fry — have yet to even play in an NFL preseason game.
Trading for Gould would require the Bears to part with one of their few draft picks. They have five this year, with none until the third round and two in the seventh. The Bears could use one of those later picks on a kicker or pursue one as an undrafted free agent..
The presence of their three kickers “doesn’t mean we can’t add to that,” Pace said.
“Creating as many pressure situations here as we can,” he said. “And just let the dust settle where it may.”
The Bears have scouted college kickers with an eye on how they handle that pressure.
“It could be where they played, the conditions they played in,” Pace said. The pressure kicks they made, the pressure kicks they didn’t.”
Pace, of course, cut Gould on the eve of the 2016 season after he struggled in the preseason. It stands as one of his largest missteps as general manager — Gould has made 82-of-85 kicks since in one year with the Giants and the last two with the 49ers.
The Bears’ special teams staff has changed since Gould was released, too. Chris Tabor, who is entering his second year as the Bears’ coordinator, first worked with Gould as a Bears assistant from 2008-10.
As the Bears were preparing to face the 49ers last season, he had high praise for his former pupil.
“Robbie,” he said, “is obviously going to be considered one of the greats of all time.”
