The Chicago Bears have not gotten over letting Robbie Gould go, and it came back around in the playoffs
If you have followed the Chicago Bears over the last three seasons, you know that they have had big-time kicker issues. It always stems back to the idea that they cut Robbie Gould before 2016. Gould was with the team from 2005-2015. He made every big kick for the team, and while he saved the Bears on the salary cap, they have consistently been haunted by this decision.
Robbie Gould was an 85% career kicker for the Bears. He was also the best kicker in franchise history. From there they went to Connor Barth who hit 74.4% of his kicks.
They brought in Roberto Aguayo to compete with him, but Barth still won. Then, they move on to Cairo Santos, who never stuck around going 1-2.
In between Robbie Gould got his revenge when the 49ers beat the Bears with five field goals.
Mike Nugent went 4-4 to close out the 2017 season but was not brought back.
That was because the team went out and signed Cody Parkey. They thought they had their solution. They even went out and paid money for him despite thinking they did not need to invest heavily in it by letting go of Gould.
Parkey hit 76% of his kicks this year, and we all know his big misses. The fact of the matter is that the Bears have spent too many resources trying to replace Gould when Gould has had three straight career years kicking.
Robbie Gould is a Free Agent this offseason. He is still a member of the community; he still admits he watches the Bears and has forever been embraced by the fans. The Chicago Bears will have to swallow a huge cap hit to cut Cody Parkey this offseason.
If the price the Bears pay for thinking they can get cheap with Gould means that they have to eat dead money to re-sign Gould so be it. The Bears should break the curse and bring back the best kicker in team history this offseason.