Cairo Santos Named NFC Special Teams Player of the Month

Bears kicker Cairo Santos wins NFC special teams award for final five weeks of the season to cap off a run of 27 straight field goals made

For only the third time since the end of the Lovie Smith era, the Bears have a player honored as conference player of the month.

Kicker Cairo Santos has been named NFC Player of the Month for the final five weeks of the regular season after making 12 of 12 on field goals. Santos made 16 of his 17 extra points then, as well, the lone miss being a blocked kick.

The only other Bears to earn player of the month since cornerback Charles Tillman in October of 2012 were Khalil Mack as NFC Defensive player of the Month in September of 2018 and Cordarrelle Patterson as NFC Special Teams Player of the Month in 2019.

Santos is one of only two NFC kickers to make at least 10 fireld goals without a miss in the final five weeks of the regular season. His high note was the 4-for-4 effort against Minnesota, including 3-for-3 that game from 40 yards and longer.

Santos last week set the Bears team record by making 27 consecutive field goals, breaking Robbie Gould's marks of 26 straight overall and 24 straight during a single season.

The .938 field goal percentage Santos had this year is the best in Bears history, as well. Gould held that mark at .897 in 2008 and 2013.

In Week 6 when the Bears beat Carolina, Santos was the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for three field goals, including his career-best 55-yard kick just before halftime.

Santos has attempted only three field goals from 50 yards or longer this season and made two. He is 11 of 13 from 40 yards and longer, his last miss coming against Atlanta in Week 3 on the first drive of the game. It was a 46-yarder.

Two years ago on Wednesday the Bears were left as the special teams joke of the NFL when Cody Parkey's double-doink field goal knocked them out of the playoffs. 

A nation-wide manhunt for a kicker by the Bears before the 2019 season produced Eddy Pineiro, through a trade for a seventh-round pick with the Raiders. After an up-and-down 2019 season, Pineiro had a groin injury when camp was about to start this year so the Bears signed Santos to their special teams.

He had been cut by Tennessee for missing four field goals in a loss to Buffalo last season.

The Bears have had 22 players win player of the month awards since the first one for linebacker Wilber Marshall in 1986, and 11 of those were for special teams.

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