Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy is resorting to the silent treatment in training his kickers.
Nagy got the idea from watching The Masters. More than 100 individuals will watch the Bears kickers compete for the starting job in silence, per The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain.
‘It doesn't really get quiet all the time when you're kicking,' Nagy said following Wednesday's OTA. ‘Normally it could be loud. But the ‘crave pressure' and ‘create pressure' is for our whole team and not just the kickers.'
Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said the silence is another way to ‘add pressure each and every day.'
‘That's been awesome,' he said about the golf course atmosphere. ‘And when you stand back there and it's silent, and you're alone out on the field, it is different than standing over here on the sideline.'
The Bears are giving their kickers the silent treatment during OTAs, which is very weird. https://t.co/GXTO8ecpxB
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) June 5, 2019
The Bears are still reeling from Cody Parkey's missed field goal in their 16-15 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2018 NFC Wild Card Game. They hosted eight kickers during their rookie minicamp last month. Now, only three kickers remain: Chris Blewitt, Elliott Fry, and Eddy Pineiro.
“We're creating as much pressure as we can on these guys,” Nagy told ESPN's Jeff Dickerson on June 6. At the time, Nagy was still uncertain how many kickers the Bears will bring with them to training camp this summer.
Will the Bears' silent treatment approach produce the best kicker available? Chicago's fans can only hope the chosen kicker will have nerves of steel. There are times when a team's entire season rests on the kicker. Parkey's situation was a perfect example. The Bears are determined it won't happen again.
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