Bears Out to Regain Special Teams Ranking

Bears 2023 Training Camp Preview: The Bears finished 24th in overall special teams rankings a year after they were top 10 but their lack of experience played a role as they look to bounce back.

There are now three former Bears kickers on the free agent market.

Michael Badgley, who kicked last season in a 20-12 loss during Cairo Santos' personal absence, has been cut by the Detroit Lions.

Detroit is going with kicker Parker Romo, for now, after he was impressive in off-season practices.

Badgley joins former Bears kicker Robbie Gould and a kicker whose name Bears fans would rather not speak (Cody Parkey) in the open market.

Cody Parkey https://t.co/ZhsP0Y2voP

— NJBearsFan 🐻⬇️ (@NJBearsFan) July 22, 2023

For some reason, there is always an undercurrent of Bears fans who want to see them sign Gould back even after Santos has emerged as the most accurate Bears kicker of all time.

Not so much with bringing Parkey back. Go figure.

At least on a percentage basis, Santos rates higher than Gould, who had far more attempts over 11 seasons than Santos has had in three and a brief part of another.

The key complaint about Santos has been the five missed PATs last year. Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower wants nothing to do with complaints about Santos after he had only two field goal misses last year and had a streak of 40 straight at one point that ended in 2021. Santos was fifth in field goal kicking last year.

"So I mean if you call that struggling, fifth in the NFL in field goals, our field goal team was fifth in the NFL," Hightower said. "I understand the extra-point question and he fixed that towards the end (last year).

"But, I mean, a lot of people would kill to have a top five kicker, so I think that we got to make our extra points and I think that he fixed that towards the end of the year. But I wouldn't say that a top five kicker struggled. That's my personal opinion."

Still, they did add local Vernon Hills kicker Andre Szmyt, the former Syracuse standout. And they even have a camp challenger for punter Trenton Gill in Ryan Anderson.

"I think competition's always good," Hightower said. "Having more than one leg in camp is always good.

"What I like about Andre the most is the fact that he’s a really really good player, a really good, quick ball-rise, strike, elevation. I like the fact that he's got that one-track mind so he has the mental toughness and the fortitude to play that position."

The Bears are settled more at some special teams positions more than others as camp approaches.

The Specialists

K Cairo Santos: No. 8, the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Brazilian kicker via Tulane, has switched jersey numbers from No. 2 to accomodate wide receiver DJ Moore. Santos has made 78 of 87 field goals for 89.7% with Chicago, No. 1 in franchise history for anyone with five attempts or more. Santos is 92 of 99 on extra points. He is 6-of-11 on 50-yard kicks plus. He has kicked off 208 times with 106 touchbacks. The 51% touchbacks is No. 1 for Bears kickers with at least 90 career kickoffs. Parkey had 73% touchbacks on 89 kickoffs.

P Trenton Gill: No. 16, their 6-4, 219-pound seventh-round draft pick from North Carolina State averaged 46 yards per punt as a rookie last year. That was the third highest average in Bears history behind two Pat O'Donnell seasons. Gill had three touchbacks and 20 punts inside the 20. Gill also kicked off 27 times last year with 13 touchbacks.

LS Patrick Scales: No. 48, their 35-year-old, 6-3, 226-pound 10th year veteran had stops earlier in his career briefly with Miami, the New York Jets and Buccaneers without getting in games and then played two games for Baltimore in 2014 before coming to Chicago. He has 14 tackles in his seven Bears seasons.

Returns

Second-year wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. is back as kick returner after averaging 27.6 yards on 22 kick returns, including a long of 63 yards against Detroit. He had a 55-yarder against Atlanta and was third in the NFL in average.

Khalil Herbert did it in 2022 and averaged 24.1 per return. He took back five last year for a 29.2-yard average, including a 50-yarder.

Dante Pettis returned most of the punts last year, averaging 9.06 yards on 18 returns. Jones tried to return punts and had five last year but muffed one each against the Commanders and Giants that were lost in defeats.

In OTAs, they've looked at rookie wide receiver Tyler Scott on returns.

Bears 2023 Special Teams Prospectus

The Bears finished 24th last year in the Rick Gosselin special teams rankings, a system taking where they place in 22 special teams categories. Ranking last in extra-point percentage didn't help their overall rating and they declined 15 spots from the previous season. A drop was understandable last year because of how many young and undrafted players they were using for special teams coverage and return units. Some type of improvement could be expected in blocking and coverage on punts and kicks. Jones' kick returns could improve as he didn't really take over as the full-time kick returner until later in the season. However, they're going to be auditioning for punt returner throughout camp and preseason and it appears to be one of their bigger special teams weaknesses. Their coverage units figure to improve with the additions of rookies Roschon Johnson, Scott and also veteran linebacker Dylan Coles, who has 43 career special teams tackles. Scott was a tenacious gunner in college despite being 180 pounds. Johnson played special teams to get on the field because he was behind Bijan Robinson at Texas on offense but he became a force and leader in kick coverage.

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