Chicago Bears: 4 recently-cut players to consider signing
By Ryan Heckman
1. K Chase McLaughlin
Last year was a rookie year for the books for Chase McLaughlin. It’s not often you see a player enter the league and play for a total of three teams in his rookie season, but that’s exactly what McLaughlin did. In fact, if we are being technical, McLaughlin made his way around five different teams since going undrafted in the 2019 NFL Draft.
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Coming into the league out of Illinois, McLaughlin was first signed by the Buffalo Bills, but was cut in late August of last year. He then joined the Minnesota Vikings practice squad.
His real shot came with the Los Angeles Chargers in October. While Michael Badgley recovered from injury, McLaughlin went 6-for-9 on field goals and was let go later in the month.
About a week later, McLaughlin was signed by the San Francisco 49ers due to Robbie Gould being hurt. He made 7-of-8 field goals with the Niners before being released a month later when Gould returned.
Finally, McLaughlin signed with the Indianapolis Colts and made 5-of-6 kicks there, finishing out the season. The Colts let McLaughlin go in favor of another undrafted rookie, Rodrigo Blankenship out of Georgia.
For the Bears, McLaughlin makes a ton of sense because of the fact that Eddy Pineiro may not be fully healthy for Week 1. Actually, Pineiro may end up on IR. The Bears kept Cairo Santos on their practice squad, and he may end up kicking while McLaughlin could be signed to their practice squad in the meantime.