Chicago Bears News: Cairo Santos gives them a good long term kicker solution
For a long time, the Chicago Bears were dealing with a bad kicker situation. They signed Cory Parkey to be that guy before his terrible 2018 season. The problem is that he was a terrible kicker on a football team that went 12-4. It looked like a team that could need their kicker down the stretch and the writing was on the wall that he wouldn’t be able to handle it. Well, he sure wasn’t able to handle it as he doinked the game-winning Field Goal in their playoff game.
After that now infamous play, the Bears quickly became the punchline of kicking jokes. People still make fun of it today but the Bears don’t care. They have their guy. Cairo Santos was awesome for the Chicago Bears in 2020 and he is being rewarded for it.
According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, the Bears and Santos agreed on a 16 million dollar, five-year contract extension with a max value of 17.5 million. The catch is that the final two years are voidable so the deal is really a nine million dollar three-year deal with a max value of 11 million. This is the perfect deal for both the Bears and Santos.
The Bears are the fifth team that Santos has played on in his NFL career. There is no doubt that his 2020 season with them is what earned him this deal. There is no longer an issue with the Bears and their kickers for the foreseeable future. Of course, Santos needs to keep kicking well in order to be worth this deal but it is fair to believe he can.
After a record-setting season, #Bears have agreed to terms with K Cairo Santos on a $16M, 5-year contract with a max value of $17.5M.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) March 12, 2021
Final 2 years of deal are voidable so it's really a $9M, 3-year deal with max value of $11M.
No more kicker carousel.
It is some much-needed good news for this franchise. One of their big problems before 2020 was the kicker. Now, if they can figure out how to move the football more, they might actually be able to take advantage of having a good kicker. You can’t rely solely on field goals but you need to have that as a part of your game.
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With a guy like Santos in the mix, we can go into 2021 with the kicker being the least of the worries. It is a good deal for the Bears and Santos is now taken care of on an individual level. He can just go out there and worry about kicking that ball through uprights instead of worrying about where he is going to play the following year.