By Jordan Long
The Chicago Bears are moving on from kicker Cody Parkey. Parkey finished his only season in the Windy City. This forces the Bears to carry $4,437,500 of dead cap salary once the new year begins. They already have his replacement in Redford Jones.
The Bears had to make this move. Parkey showed this season he couldn’t be trusted to hit field goals in the regular season. He would either force the kicks wide right or left or the football would hit off the upright. This would give the opponents decent field position for their offense. Parkey was 23 of 30 in field goals, making kicks at 76.7%. That is not a percentage a kicker wants to see. His longest was 50 yards.
When the Bears scored touchdowns, they expected Parkey to hit the PAT. That didn’t always happen. He struggled to make PAT’s, missing 3 of them.
Once the playoffs started, the Bears were hoping his struggles were behind him. They hosted the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round. For most of the game, Parkey was making field goals and extra points. He nailed a 36-yard, 34-yard, and 29-yard field goal to keep the Bears in the game. It looked like his struggles were behind him.
The Bears had a chance to win the game with 10 seconds left. Chicago drove to the Eagles’ 25-yard line. Parkey lined up for a game winning kick but it was partially blocked. The football ended up hitting the left-upright and the crossbar before falling down in the endzone. The Eagles escaped with a 16-15 victory and Parky was the reason the Bears let this one slip.
Chicago decided they had seen enough. Parkey’s body of work showed he couldn’t be trusted to make field goals. They needed to move on.
They are taking a risk with Jones. He hasn’t tried to nail a field goal yet in the NFL. His last experience on a football field was in college with the University of Tulsa. He was their kicker from 2015 to 2017. Jones was 50 of 67 in his college career or a field goal percentage of 74.6. The Bears are confident he can be their place kicker for years to come. If he starts to miss kicks, it will be back to the drawing board for the Bears. They may want to think about adding an experienced NFL kicker to their roster to give Jones some competition during training camp and preseason.
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