Does Cairo Santos Deserve Another Shot?
The ball rose toward the uprights, veered left, struck the left goal post, fell and bounced off the crossbar then dropped to the ground.
Some of the Bears dropped to the ground then in stunned frustration thanks to Cody Parkey's double doink.
It was only a little over four years ago but apparently Pro Football Focus forgot about this.
An article by Brad Spielberger on the analytics website headelined NFL Cut Candidates for All 32 Teams, it's suggested the Bears should cut kicker Cairo Santos.
The logic behind this centered on the extra points missed by Spielberger, who said Santos needs to be cut because he "...missed five extra points and two field goals in 2022, earning him a 48.5 kicking grade that ranked dead last among 34 kickers with at least 10 attempts."
The 48.5 is apparently the Pro Football Focus grading system because there is no other known 48.5 associated with Santos' kicking.
The suggestion here is to revise the Pro Football Focus system for grading kickers.
It's not like Santos was Brett Maher, the Cowboys kicker who missed three in the regular season and then missed five in two postseason games when it really mattered.
Spielberger just urged the Bears to cut a kicker who made 91.3% of his field goal tries. He went 21 of 23 and one of the misses was blocked while the other was from 56 yards.
Santos' five missed extra points were definitely not ideal, but two came in the first game in the middle of a monsoon. He shouldn't miss them, but two missed field goals is excellent kicking. His 91.3% accuracy was way better than 84.8%, and that figure was the average for the league in 2022. It's an official number and not some theoretical hocus-pocus grading system.
Spielberger apparently doesn't remember the disaster of 2018, when a kicker spent the season bouncing kicks off metal and then did the double-doink to end the season.
PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS' LIST OF PLAYERS TO CUT
It seems he also forgets the difficulty the Bears had finding a suitable replacment in the offseason afterward. Then when they found Eddy Piniero with a trade, he missed an easy kick against the Chargers that could have helped keep the Bears in the playoff chase.
Santos is 25th in league history for career accuracy (84.475).
His 89.7% for the Bears is the best any kicker in franchise history has accomplished. Robbie Gould's was 85.4%.
Santos' range is said by Spielberger to be 53 yards but he has made a 55-yarder before with the Bears. He also mentions how a handful of kickers have made field goals 10 yards longer and the Bears should pursue "younger solutions."
No need for solutions when something isn't broke.
There have only been eight field goals 10 yards longer than 53 yards in the history of the league. All were either indoors, in thin air conditions at Mile High, or occurred in warm weather.
Any kicker who kicks at Soldier Field is never going to be among the best at making long-distance kicks because of the severe winds on the lakefront and also the cold/wind in November or later.
Santos admitted after the season he needs to be better on extra points. He will be in the final year of his contract in 2023, and there's no sense cutting him now when it isn't warranted.
There are too many actual poor kickers out there on teams and off of teams who would be fortunate to have his track record.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
