Chicago Bears: Full 2019 mock draft after free agency frenzy
After a terrible ending to a magical season at the hands of kicker Cody Parkey, the Chicago Bears decided to part ways with him. In his place, the team signed Redford Jones and Chris Blewitt. I wouldn’t expect either of them to end up locking the kicker’s spot, however. Jones has had the same trouble with hitting the uprights that Parkey had in 2018, and I don’t see the Bears having a kicker named Blewitt after dealing with kicking woes for the past three seasons.
Those guys will just be there to push the one who will ultimately be the starter and mostly be training camp bodies. The one who will be the starter will be Matt Gay, the kicker out of Utah.
It surprised me that the Bears didn’t go after Stephen Gostkowski. Once the San Francisco 49ers slapped the franchise tag on Robbie Gould Gostkowski was the perfect guy to kick for the Chicago Bears not named Gould. He made some key kicks to help the New England Patriots win some Super Bowls. He’s shown to have the ice in his blood to help the Bears win big games as well.
Apparently, Pace and the Bears front office don’t agree. I guess they want to go for a younger player and develop him into the next Gould. They did the same with Gould, signing the undrafted rookie (after he failed to make the Patriots or the Baltimore Ravens). They picked him up and he ended up being the franchise’s all-time leading scorer and second most accurate kicker in the history of the NFL.
Gay has the leg to reach similar heights. He was a walk-on at Utah and ended up winning the Lou Groza Award for the best kicker in the nation. At Utah, he connected on 56 of 65 kicks, with his longest being from 56 yards. Additionally, he made all 85 extra point attempts.
Gay is a big guy for a kicker at 6-feet, 232 pounds, and has a strong leg. He’s made field goals in good weather and in the driving snow. He’ll be making long field goals on Sundays for quite some time. He connected on 8-of-11 field goals from beyond 50 yards. Also, he’ll have a lot of touchbacks, important because that keeps kick returners from setting up their offenses with good field position.
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The only concern with Gay is his three-step approach to kicking. It takes a little time and has resulted in blocks. Of the nine missed field goals he’s had, three of them were blocked. The coaching staff is sure to work with him on that and if they draft him they can finally have a replacement for Gould and have another great kicker in addition to Kevin Butler and Gould.