Chicago Bears must go sign kicker Matt Bryant immediately

It is time for the Chicago Bears to make a serious investment at the kicker position by going out and signing Matt Bryant.

The Chicago Bears kicking situation is an absolute mess. After his “double doink” field goal that knocked the Bears out of the playoffs, bringing back Cody Parkey simply was not an option. The Bears invited eight kickers to minicamp and consistently put them in stress-filled situations to see who could handle it best.

As of this week, three of those kickers remained. Eddy Pineiro, Elliot Fry and Chris Blewitt have all been battling it out to be the Bears’ primary kicker in 2019. In practice earlier this week, all three kickers were given an opportunity to kick a 42-yard field goal (the distance of Parkey’s “double doink” kick) in a pressure-filled situation. All three missed.

On Wednesday morning, the Chicago Bears released Blewitt, leaving the kicking competition between Pineiro and Fry. However, neither kicker has been overly inspiring.

The Bears are a legitimate Super Bowl contender in 2019. They have almost inarguably the best defense in the league and a dynamic offense that appears ready to take the next step. The kicker position is their one true weakness on the roster, and as we saw last season, it can be a weakness that cripples them.

It is time to stop messing around. Guys like Pineiro and Fry simply are not going to get the job done. The Chicago Bears should go out in free agency and offer Matt Bryant a contract that he cannot refuse.

Bryant is a rock solid veteran who has been one of the most reliable kickers in the NFL in recent years. He is the eighth most accurate kicker in NFL history and would immediately fill the Bears’ biggest need with a premier player.

Bryant has spent the last 10 years of his career with the Atlanta Falcons, meaning he has spent the majority of his games kicking in a dome. Obviously, kicking in a dome is much different than kicking in the windy Soldier Field. He may not be as automatic as he was in Atlanta, but Bryant is still a reliable kicker who would be much better than their current options.

In an ideal world, the Bears would be able to make a trade for Robbie Gould. He is just as good, if not better than Bryant, and we know that he can kick in Soldier Field. However, the San Francisco 49ers are not listening to his trade demands.

If Gould is not an option, Matt Bryant is the best solution to the kicking woes of the Bears. If they continue to mess around with their less than stellar options, it could easily cost them in the long run…. again.