Since Ryan Pace arrived in Chicago in 2015, he’s managed to rebuild a franchise stuck in its losing ways. He found his coach, his quarterback, his franchise defensive star and his weapons on both sides of the ball.
The one thing he hasn’t been able to get right? Kicker.
Cody Parkey was supposed to be that stability the Bears were looking for. Only he wasn’t. And he solidified as much with a double-doink missed field goal that ended the Bears’ playoff journey before it could ever really get started. The Bears released him in the days that followed.
Now, Pace begins another search for answers at the kicker position.
The Bears added three kickers through free agency in Chris Blewitt, Redford Jones and Elliott Fry, who are all expected to compete for the starting job. Chicago also signed SDSU’s John Baron II as an undrafted free agent bringing the kicking competition to four.
“Maybe it’s a little unorthodox to have four kickers out there,” Pace said on Saturday. “We don’t care. Let’s increase the competition and let the whole thing battle out…We’re going to do whatever we can to get that situation right.”
It’s highly unlikely that the Bears go into training camp with four kickers, which means that Pace and Nagy are going to turn up the pressure during OTAs to narrow the field.
The kicker position remains the “elephant in the room” for Nagy and the Bears, but Nagy isn’t going to let Parkey’s missed field define this team moving forward. It’s over, it’s done and now it’s time to get to work.
“This right here is half full, not half empty,” Nagy said. “That’s where we’re at right now. All this kicking stuff and the field goals and everything like that, we’re open.
“We can use the, ‘Hey, the Cody Parkey miss.’ It’s OK. It doesn’t hurt me. It’s fine, it’s good…Use it, talk about it. It’s a healthy thing. So we feel good about it, and we’re going to get this thing right.”
