Bears meet with all the kickers at the NFL Combine

Now that the Chicago Bears have confirmed the report that they will cut kicker Cody Parkey after the league year starts — giving him a June 1st designation to push some of his dead money to 2020 — they’re once again trying to solve the revolving door at the position since they cut Robbie Gould before the 2016 season.

Conner Barth was underwhelming during ‘16 and ‘17. They had Andy Phillips in camp in ‘17 and claimed Roberto Aguayo a week after cutting Phillips that same season. But Aguayo didn’t even last a month in Chicago. When Barth was released in November that year, they signed Cairo Santos to kick, but he was injured a couple weeks later leading to Mike Nugent being signed. And then finally Parkey was inked in March of 2018.

All caught up now?

With Parkey out, the only kicker on the roster is undrafted free agent Redford Jones on a reserve/future contract, but that’s not gonna be enough for a camp competition.

Chicago general manager Ryan Pace says they will “explore every avenue” to fix the on-going problem at kicker. One of those options is to bring in a rookie, and the Bears are reported to have met with all three kickers at the NFL Combine according to Chris Emma of 670 The Score.

Cole Tracy from LSU, Matt Gay from Utah, and Austin Seibert from Oklahoma are the only kickers invited to Indianapolis and all three are apparently on the Bears’ radar.

Tracy was perfect on extra points (42 for 42) and 29 of 33 on field goals (87.9%), for 129 points.

Gay also didn’t miss an extra point (45 for 45) and he was 26 of 31 on FGs (83.9%), with 123 points.

Siebert missed one extra point last season (87 for 88) and he was 17 of 19 on FGs (89.5%), with 138 points scored. He was also the punter for the Sooners with a 41.7 average in his four year career on 179 punts, although he is not expected to punt moving forward in his career.

Some scouts peg Tracy and Gay as possible draft picks, with Siebert likely going the UDFA route.

There are a few veterans on the market, the best being 43-year old Matt Bryant, but we’ll find out Chicago’s plans in a couple weeks when free agency gets rolling.