Chicago Bears: Has team mishandled kicking situation?

The regular season is quickly approaching and the Chicago Bears have yet to find a kicker. However, have the Bears mishandled their kicking situation this offseason?

Expectations are sky-high for the Chicago Bears in 2019. Everyone is thinking Super Bowl and the Bears have a deep talented roster that resembles that of a Super Bowl champion. However, there is one glaring need on the Bears roster and it’s no secret: Kicker.

With just over three weeks to go until the Bears open up their regular season against the Green Bay Packers, the Bears may still not have their kicker on the roster for the 2019 season. All throughout the offseason, the Bears did everything they could in order to address the position.

During workouts at Halas Hall in the spring, the Bears brought in nearly ten kickers during a tryout session. Of that group, only Elliott Fry survived. Then, the Bears traded for Eddy Pineiro and headed into Bourbonnais with Fry and Pineiro on the roster. However, on Sunday, the Bears released Fry which means that now Pineiro is the only kicker on the roster.

Throughout this whole process, what’s interesting to note is the fact that the Bears front office has consistently stated that the team will be aggressive when it comes to figuring out a way to address the kicker position. In other words, are willing to use the trade market and waiver wire in order to find their next kicker.

However, now is right about the time to start being concerned. With just two preseason games to go, there’ll be only one kicker kicking for the Bears. Additionally, it doesn’t seem like the Bears are going to use future draft capital in order to acquire a kicker via trade.

What the Bears could have done, earlier in the offseason was traded for a guy like Kaare Vedvik. However, Vedvik was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for a fifth-round draft pick. And while Ryan Pace does know what he’s doing, it doesn’t appear that he was willing to give up more than a sixth or seventh-round draft pick for Vedvik.

With the clock slowly ticking and the regular season approaching faster than ever, if the Bears are unable to figure out the kicking position, it could derail this teams Super Bowl hopes and would be an all-time low moment for the franchise.

Time will tell, but even right now, it’s hard to predict how the Bears kicking situation is going to unfold. Anything, both positive and negative can happen over the next three weeks. As of right now, it is somewhat safe to say that the Bears haven’t handled this situation properly.