How concerning is Chicago Bears kicker situation

How concerned are you with the Chicago Bears kicker situation?

Over the past 365 days, the Chicago Bears issue at kicker had gone from a small joke about being the one weakness of Ryan Pace to a full-blown issue that is starting to gain headlines. Matt Nagy has not backed down from the issue, and in fact has added fuel to the fire. Almost to the point where you have to question how they are handling the situation.

Nagy addressed the media after the draft and said he wanted the Cody Parkey miss to be a rallying cry more than an elephant in the room. He noted that many teams come back from an embarrassing loss to make a championship run the following season. This came off as genuine and positive. He is taking the glass half-full approach.

However, with eight kickers attempting the same kick that Parkey blew with fellow teammates chanting around them, the attention really started to grow. Nagy likely was not anticipating a 2-8 showing on the first day, which drew some push back. The team that keeps getting kicker wrong had eight shots, and cannot feel confident in any.

Yes, Parkey missed the kick. Still, the Bears only scored 15 points all game. Matt Nagy was calling plays for Benny Cunningham and Taquan Mizzell in the first half, why has he not addressed that in the media like he has the Parkey miss? The defense also gave up a fourth-down touchdown pass to give up the lead. For what was a great defense, they did lose a few games on last second drives, but finishing on fourth down is not a rallying cry. Yes, Parkey deserves blame, but the team lost the game.

Bringing media attention onto the process is not a huge issue, but when six kickers were cut the next day, you have to wonder if it was worth it. Did the attention on that miss override any useful evaluation? Do the Bears even know what they are looking for or are they just picking names, letting them try and letting them go?

On top of that, reportedly the top kicker from the tryout, Case Bednarski was not retained. Being better than a group of kickers who were not held onto does not mean much, but you would think that they would at least want one more look, considering this has been such an issue.

You want to believe that Pace and Nagy know what they saw this weekend, but at the same time,  Pace is the reason they are in this spot, and Nagy’s only kicker decision has been Parkey.

The Bears traded a future seventh-round pick for a kicker with a condition that they can cut him and will not lose anything. Eddy Pineiro has a good reputation, but again, how much can we trust Pace and Nagy here? Considering what they gave up, there is no confirming that the future kicker is on the roster.

Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace are creating pressure for their kickers. They are making sure that they have a tough minded player. However, at the same time, they have essentially admitted that they do not know what they are looking for as the team moves on to kicker number nine this offseason.

Will the Chicago Bears get this right? Do you trust the process? How concered are you that this will drag into the regular season?