The Chicago Bears situation at the kicker position has been suspect ever since they let go of their very efficient kicker, Robbie Gould, a few years back.
This past season they brought in Cody Parkey, who had spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cleveland Browns, and the Miami Dolphins. Parkey was statistically the worst kicker in the entire NFL in 2018. He lost the Bears games with his missed field goals, especially his kick in the first round against his former team, the Eagles. He missed a 43-yard field goal attempt — which was partially blocked — that would've put the Bears up by two to beat the Eagles.
Bears GM Ryan Pace was asked about the kicking situation moving forward, and something has to be done. Pace said at his season-ending press conference:
“We know we need to get better there, and it’s an area of focus. There will definitely be competition.”
On the regular season as a whole, Parkey missed seven field goal attempts and three extra point attempts, only hitting on 76.7 percent of his kicks. Perhaps the weather and poor ground conditions at Soldier Field bothered him, but it still is no excuse for such a terrible season.
The Bears likely won't release Parkey outright because of how much money he's making. It wouldn't be advisable due to the hard cap implications. The kicker is owed a little over $4 million dollars next year.
Even still, it wouldn't be all that shocking for the Bears to bring multiple kickers to training camp coming into the next season.
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