The Chicago Bears are apparently still reeling from how their season ended last year because what they’re doing with their kickers during OTAs is, in a word, weird.
The Bears, of course, lost to the Eagles in the wild-card round last January when Cody Parkey’s short FG was partially blocked and clanged off the goal post, giving Philly a 16-15 win and sending Bears fans into a deep depression.
Chicago has since parted ways with Parkey, who missed a bunch of FGs last season, and have gone to great lengths to find a new kicker. The team currently is working with three different guys (including a dude named Chris Blewitt), which says a lot about the state of their kicking game.
Now they’re using something called the “Augusta silence” to test each kicker during drills.
ESPN has the details from special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor:
Bears special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor explained on Wednesday that he and head coach Matt Nagy lifted a page from the Masters’ playbook and operate under the code of “Augusta silence” whenever a field goal is called for during team drills at OTAs.
“No one talks,” Tabor said. “Obviously we’re doing the ‘Augusta silence’ [for a reason]. That’s been awesome. I am used to people yelling at me. You know, I’m used to, I mean my daughters and my wife will yell at me, so I’m used to it. But when it’s quiet out there it is, it is a different feeling. Nagy and I have talked about it … it’s different.”
Nagy added:
“We’re creating as much pressure as we can on these guys,” Nagy said. “We’re getting the ‘Augusta silence’ out here with the team and that’s eerie.”
Yeah, the Bears are definitely in their own heads a little bit over this kicking situation.
Things should go really well for them this season. They’re definitely gonna excel in the kicking game. Yup. No problems at all.
