There was a period after the Robbie Gould era when the Chicago Bears couldn’t seem to find a steadying presence in their kicking game. It made it particularly difficult to stomach watching Gould go on to have success with the San Francisco 49ers.
And watching Cody Parkey’s double doink. Full stop.
The revolving door that was the Bears’ kicking room following Gould’s departure featured a who’s who of names from around the league.
Connor Barth, Mike Nugent, Eddy Pineiro, and Parkey were all a woeful reminder that former general manager Ryan Pace may have jumped the gun on Gould’s release.
Again, my apologies for the painful reminder.
Also included in that list was Cairo Santos, who was a midseason signing in Nov. 2017 and was signed again in 2020.
In his second stint with the Bears, the Tulane alum has been a steadying force for a team that badly needed it. It looked like Santos’ days in Chicago might be numbered after missing his fifth extra point of the season in 2022.
But good on general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus for allowing the 31-year-old to work through his issues and correct them. Santos is a perfect 11-for-11 on field goals and 14-of-15 on extra-point attempts this season.
Coming full circle, Santos missed his first kick in a Bears uniform, a 54-yarder in a 31-3 loss to Philadelphia. Last Sunday, he nailed a 54-yard field goal to give the Bears a commanding 18-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Richard Hightower said the team was fired up after Cairo Santos made his 54-yard field goal to give the #Bears an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter. pic.twitter.com/FRbisE7rMU
— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) October 26, 2023
Before the kick, the game still had an unsettling feeling of being “over” but not “over.” Much like the Week 4 loss to the Broncos.
Since returning to Chicago in 2020, Santos has quietly been one of the most consistent kickers in the league. He’s hit 91.7 percent (88-of-96) of his field goal attempts and 92.9 percent (105-of-113) of his extra-point tries.
Plain and simple: Santos has been good.
His quiet success has, in a sense, closed the door on the baffling and, quite frankly, frustrating departure of Gould.
Santos is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023 season. There’s still plenty of season left, but should he continue kicking at this rate, the Bears will have to make him a priority to re-sign in the offseason.