Bears Appear Set with Cairo Santos

A contingent of Bears fans who want Robbie Gould back as the kicker despite Cairo Santos' record-setting accuracy will be disappointed in what coaches feel.

USA Today

If you've enlisted in the "sign Robbie Gould" movement, it might be time to face the facts.

The Bears have a kicker who is one of the most accurate in the league at the moment and bringing back a face from their past isn't something of interest to them at this time.

Gould, who kicked in Chicago, is 40 now and decided to move on from the San Francisco 49ers after last season. He still has never missed a field goal in postseason and during March he made an appearance on ESPN AM-1000's Waddle & Silvy in which he said: "Would I love to come back here and play? Absolutely."

The Bears have two kickers on the roster. The other is a local success story, and it's not Gould. Andre Szmyt is from Vernon Hills High, just 5 miles down the road from Halas Hall, and he is on the roster as an undrafted free agent from Syracuse. He won the Lou Groza Award earlier in his career as the nation's top college kicker. 

But they have a pretty fair kicker now and special teams coordinator Richard Hightower realizes this, even with the five missed extra points Santos had last year. Santos finished fifth in field goal accuracy and missed only two, going 21-of-23. Two of the missed extra points came in the monsoon that the Bears played in against the 49ers in the opener. 

Santos is the most accurate Bears kicker in history with 78 of 87 (89.7%). He has been at 90.6% over the last three years after returning to the team. He had been in Chicago two games before and made 1-of-2 when he was plagued by an injury.

"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.

"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."

Punter Trenton Gill also has competition at camp from Ryan Anderson.

Both backups might be considered "camp legs" by some people to take some of the work and pressure off the regular punter and kicker. Regardless, Hightower expects both of their regular legs to compete.

"I think that like competition brings the best in everybody," Hightower said. "So really if you're a pro at what you do, it really shouldn't change anything, cause you should be working like a pro every day. You should be competing against yourself.

"That's what I tell them, like you want to be better than the man in the mirror. Now obviously when a guy is next to you, you say, 'oh, well.' It turns you up a little bit. But those guys just got to do what they continue to do. They just got to continue to do what they have been doing, and I think it'll play out itself."

Nowhere in there was Hightower hoping for Gould to come in and provide camp competition.

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