Getty Kai Forbath just got poached off the Bears' practice squad
Less than a week prior to their matchup against the Chicago Bears Monday night, the Los Angeles Rams have poached kicker Kai Forbath from the Bears’ practice squad, the team announced via its Twitter account.
Rams sign kicker Kai Forbath
The Bears had just added Forbath to their practice squad last week, and now, he could potentially kick against them Monday night. Forbath will compete with kicker Samuel Sloman for a spot on the Rams’ 53-man roster, and whoever wins the job will see Chicago Week 7. Forbath, an eight-year vet, has played for six different teams. He has a career field goal percentage of 86.8, and he has hit 93.8 percent of his extra points.
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Look for Chicago to Find Another Kicker, Stat…
The kicker position has been one of emphasis for head coach Matt Nagy and the Bears this offseason, largely as a precautionary measure due to COVID-19. With last year’s starting kicker Eddy Pineiro still on injured reserve — where he has been all year — Nagy and company have understandably erred on the side of caution, and will very likely be adding another kicker to their practice squad soon.
“One way or another, we’ll have two,” Nagy said prior to the season about how many kickers he wanted to keep around. “It’s just too important. So we’re going through that. I would say that’s something that internally we’ll keep to us. We have a plan. But we’ll definitely be having two for sure.”
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Is Cairo Santos Now ‘The Guy’ for the Bears?
Based on Matt Nagy’s recent comments, it seems as though the kicking job is now Cairo Santos’ to lose. Pineiro won the team’s kicking competition last year, and he seemed to be their kicker of the future heading into the season, but Santos just went 3-3 against the Carolina Panthers while also hitting a career-high 55-yard field goal, so the Bears will likely ride with the hot hand — or leg.
Santos spent three seasons with Nagy when they were both with the Kansas City Chiefs, and there was a trust established that has been further cemented with Santos’ recent play. Listening to Nagy speak about Santos’ performance this week, it was clear he now trusts Santos as the team’s starter moving forward.
“Cairo, for me, just from him being a kicker in Kansas City when I was there for those years, I always had a lot of confidence in him,” Nagy said after the win against the Panthers. “Every time he was there, never once did I ever think about the kick being made or the kick being missed. I’ll be honest with you: I’m really in that mode right now with him. I know that. That 55-yarder, it didn’t shock me that he hit it. The thing with Cairo is that he’s very confident and he doesn’t get [down]. If he misses a kick, ‘OK, I missed a kick. I’ll get the next one.’ And I appreciate that about him.”
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