Bears K Cairo Santos named NFC Special Teams Player of the Month

Santos’ performance over the last four games in Chicago’s push for the postseason earned him NFL Special Teams Player of the Month honors.

While the Chicago Bears have plenty of questions to answer following the 2020 season, one of those is not at the kicker position.

Cairo Santos started the season as an “in case of emergency” option for the Bears when Eddy Pineiro went down with a groin injury. But Santos quickly established himself as the answer to Chicago’s kicker woes.

Santos has been impressive all season, but especially as the Bears battled to secure a wild-card spot over the last month. Santos’ performance has earned his NFC Special Teams Player of the Month honors for December.

In the last four games, Santos made all nine of his field goals in three victories for the Bears.

Santos hasn’t just been good, he’s been record-breaking for the Bears. Santos connected on his final 27 field-goal attempts this season, which eclipsed the mark of 26 in a row set by Robbie Gould back in 2005-06. Santos’ last miss came in Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons.

This season, Santos connected on 30-of-32 field goals, converting 93.8% of his kicks, which is also another single-season record. Santos once again topped Gould’s previous mark of 89.7% back in 2008 and 2013.

When your kicker is breaking records set by arguably Chicago’s best kicker in franchise history, you know you’ve got something special. Santos is set to hit the open market after this season, but the Bears will likely lock him down long-term before that can happen.

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