Chicago Bears Free Agency: Kicking woes solved by underrated signing of Cody Parkey

Over the last two years, the Chicago Bears simply haven’t gotten the kicking game under control — that ends now.

With all of the madness that is NFL free agency this year, the Chicago Bears have been one of the more busy teams. Surprisingly, we have seen some big names agree to terms with the Bears and it appears Ryan Pace is on track during March, for once.

For two seasons, Chicago has dealt with the ramifications of releasing fan favorite Robbie Gould. It might have been his time to go, but the Bears may have quickly regretted releasing him.

The last two years have been rough for the kicking game, and that’s being polite. Connor Barth has been the main guy, with a couple mixed in here and there due to injury.

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In two years with the Bears, Barth has finished with accuracy percentages of 78.3 and 68.8 while missing one extra point. It became painful to watch at times, as Bears fans simply weren’t used to such horrendous effort at the position.

Chicago gave it a go with Cairo Santos and Mike Nugent, but an injury to Santos and Nugent’s inconsistency proved that neither were cut out to be the long-term answer.

Tuesday, Pace made it known he was going to get his way. He and the Bears agreed to terms with Allen Robinson, Trey Burton and Taylor Gabriel, giving Mitchell Trubisky some real weapons on offense.

One of the more underrated and lesser talked about signings, though, was that of Cody Parkey.

Parkey is only 26 years old and has been one of the better kickers in football over his four year career. Last season, he finished at a career-best 91.3 percent accuracy. Parkey is an answer to one of the biggest prayers by Bears fans in recent seasons.

Over his career, Parkey is 52-of-54 from 20-39 yards away. That’s quite impressive. He is also 6-for-7 on field goals of 50-plus yards.

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At such a young age and with a career accuracy of 86.4 percent, Parkey looks to be the guy for years to come in Chicago. Well done, Pace, and we all look forward to seeing what you will do next.