Is there a chance Robbie Gould could still end up with the Chicago Bears in 2019?
Every Chicago Bears fan at this point knows that the San Francisco 49ers placed the franchise tag on Robbie Gould earlier this off-season.
After the Cody Parkey fiasco of 2018, Bears fans had their eyes set on the free agent-to-be kicker and desperately hoped for a reunion in Chicago.
Gould seemed very interested in a return to Chicago. His family still lives in Chicago, he was actively tweeting plenty of positives about the Chicago Bears and even attended the Philadelphia Eagles playoff game with his children.
Gould’s family still lives in Chicago and Gould has never put down roots in San Francisco. He lives in a hotel during the season.
How much does Gould still embrace Chicago? Check out this string of tweets:
That is a man who embraces Chicago and may have even been making his pitch to return to the city and the franchise.
The love Gould has for Chicago is mutual. Recently NBC Sports Chicago ran a March Madness bracket to declare the greatest Bear of all-time, and in quite a funny twist, Robbie Gould won the bracket over the likes of Walter Payton, Brian Urlacher and Khalil Mack.
Once the 49ers placed the franchise tag on Gould, his Chicago tweets slowed down considerably. But there is, of course, one key to this whole situation: Gould hasn’t signed the tag.
Gould is pretty powerless against the tag, but it appears he might be willing to play chicken with the 49ers. The 49ers have tried to hammer down a long-term contract with Gould, but he doesn’t seem interested in what the 49ers are offering.
Let’s play out the timeline here. Gould is franchised in late February. In late March, John Lynch tells the press that they want Gould to remain a Niner but, and here’s the key quote, “It takes everyone wanting to do that. We’ll see if that’s a reality or not.”
That’s certainly not an overwhelmingly positive quote about Gould’s viability on San Francisco.
A couple of weeks later, this interesting nugget surfaced:
The fact that Gostkowski quickly signed with the New England Patriots after that report surfaced is almost irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that after Lynch questioned Gould’s interest in remaining in San Francisco, just a couple of weeks later they started looking at other kickers.
It looks like Gould is playing hard ball with the 49ers and may be trying to force his way out of town. Could Ryan Pace have had conversations with Gould’s camp and told them if he can get free, he has a job in Chicago? It’s possible.
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Even if it’s not Chicago, perhaps Gould wants to get himself closer to Chicago where his family resides and make the months of August through December easier for the family man.
Pace is doing his due diligence on available kickers. He certainly isn’t relying on Gould becoming available, but the question is, if he does become available, will the Bears jump? Remember, the Bears have freed up plenty of money to make a bit of a free agent splash but haven’t used much of it to this point.
The longer Gould holds out, the less leverage Lynch is going to have with him. First of all, let’s be honest, this is a kicker, a team doesn’t want to be playing chicken with their kicker into the summer. That’s a position they don’t want to be in. They want that position settled.
If Lynch wants to try to trade Lynch, his leverage for getting anything for him is waning. Could the Bears be willing to send the 49ers one of their seventh round picks to lock-in Gould? If Pace is interested, he may be willing to wait out the 49ers and see if Lynch rescinds the tag if he knows that Gould wants to play in Chicago.
If Lynch calls Pace and asks for a seventh, it makes a lot of sense for the Bears to accept that offer, but this situation is definitely becoming one that Bears’ fans should monitor. After Gould was franchised it certainly seemed like the dream of a reunion was dead, but apparently, if you ask Robbie Gould, it still has a pulse.