The Chicago Bears are still not over Cody Parkey’s 43-yard missed field goal in the wild card round of the playoffs against the Eagles.
Chicago released Cody Parkey this offseason, and is trying to find his replacement. They have invited eight different kickers in for the rookie mini-camp, and on Friday, held a competition. They are also taking the phrase “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” a little too seriously.
Head coach Matt Nagy made the kickers compete by trying to make a kick from the same distance as Parkey. It did not go well. The eight kickers combined to make just two of their attempts, with the rest of the team looking on (and presumably, not facing a rush).
We got our first glimpse at Matt Nagy’s kicking competition for the #Bears at rookie minicamp. With the entire team watching, each kicker had one shot from 43 yards out — the same distance that Cody Parkey missed from against the Eagles in the playoffs. 6 misses.
— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) May 3, 2019
To put that in perspective, last year Parker made nine of 13 kicks from between 40 and 49 yards, and that was wholly unacceptable. That was facing a rush, with the chance that a key kick could get tipped by a rushing defender. NFL kickers went 5 of 10 on kicks of 59 yards or more last season. To find a range where an NFL kicker would make only 25 percent of their kicks, you would have to go well beyond sixty yards.
Also, if Nagy is going to be this obsessive about kickers, it is probably going to be a long season in Chicago when it comes to the biting of nails when the kicking unit comes on. Embrace going for it, Chicago.
