The Chicago Bears have taken action on what most NFL observers thought to be a foregone conclusion–releasing kicker Cody Parkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago hoped that Parkey would provide some stability in the kicking game when they signed him to a four year deal last march. The deal included $9 million in guaranteed money and the Bears will take a $4,437,000 hit against the salary cap once the transaction is made official when the new league year begins on March 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parkey was inconsistent throughout the season missing three extra point attempts and eight field goals. His biggest miscue was missing a 43 yard field goal with time expiring against the Philadelphia Eagles in the first round of the NFC playoffs. A ‘make’ would have given the Bears a victory but instead was slightly tipped before bouncing off the left upright and the crossbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bears might have been willing to deal with a missed kick in a crucial situation. What they couldn’t deal with was watching Parkey make a ‘bit’ out of the situation. Parkey appeared on the ‘Today’ show just five days after the missed kick<\/a> and the Bears 16-15 loss to the Eagles. That made head coach Matt Nagy none too happy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For me, you understand that we always talk about a ‘we’ and not a ‘me’ thing. We always talk as a team, we win as a team, we lose as a team. You know, I just, I didn’t necessarily think that that was too much of a ‘we’ thing.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bears GM Ryan Pace all but said the team screwed up by signing Parkey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You’re never going to bat a thousand [in free agency]. I know Cody wishes he had a better season. We wish he had a better season, too. We’ve just got to evaluate that now. You’ve got to be honest with yourselves in these. I think as we go forward, that’s when we’ve got to be real and say, hey, that’s an important position for us. It’s a position of emphasis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A Chicago area bar ran a contest <\/a>where over 100 entrants tried to make the same kick that Parkey missed–a 43 yard field goal in the snow. There were no winners. NFL Super Bowl futures odds<\/a> have the Chicago Bears installed as a +1400 choice to win Super Bowl LIV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Chicago Bears have taken action on what most NFL observers thought to be a foregone conclusion–releasing kicker Cody Parkey….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t