Getty Cairo Santos will be sticking around for the Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears have found themselves a kicker for the foreseeable future. The team announced Friday evening that it had signed Cairo Santos to a three-year contract extension.
Thus, after one of the most highly publicized (and scrutinized) kicking competitions in the history of the NFL, it looks like the Eddy Piñeiro experiment is officially a thing of the past, Augusta Silence and big leg be damned.
Kickin’ it with Cairo through 2023! 🙌
We have agreed to terms with @cairosantos19 on a three-year contract extension.
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune first broke the news of the Bears reaching a new deal with Santos, originally stating Chicago had signed Santos to a five-year $16 million contract with a maximum value of $17.5 million. The contract, per Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic, “has two voidable years at the end, making it essentially a three-year, $9 million contract that has a maximum value of $11 million.”
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Santos Took the Job From Piñeiro & Never Looked Back
After Cody Parkey’s infamous, playoff-ending upright doinker sent the Bears home from the Wild Card round after the 2018 season, coach Matt Nagy and the Bears hosted the likes of approximately 10 or more kickers at the same time, creating a competition ultimately won by Piñeiro, who spent the 2019 season as the team’s kicker. Piñeiro went 23-28 on his field goal attempts that year, and he made 27 of 29 extra-point attempts.
A groin injury kept Piñeiro on injured reserve to start the season, and Santos, who knew Nagy from their days in Kansas City, took over and never looked back. The six-year vet had a season to forget in 2019, including a game with the Tennessee Titans in which he missed four field goals and was subsequently cut a few days after.
Santos found his groove in Chicago last year, making 30 of 32 field-goal attempts (which included a career-long 55-yarder) and he was 36-37 on his extra-point attempts.
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Bears Trust Santos Moving Forward
Santos went through a stretch in 2020 where he made 27 consecutive field goals, including a memorable Week 5 game-winner over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“There’s a ton of trust we all have now with him,” Nagy said about Santos last year, per the Chicago Tribune. “Really, ultimately, when it comes down to it, we have a lot of confidence in Cairo that these kicks are going to go through. He’s made some big ones this year. We just want to keep that going. He’s in a good place right now, so we’re just trying to continue that.”
Santos began his career in Kansas City in 2014, playing for the Chiefs until 2017. That’s when he got to know Nagy, who served as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for KC during that time. Santos also had a brief stint with the Bears previously, playing two games for them in 2017. The 29-year-old kicker also had brief stints with the Rams and Buccaneers in 2018, in addition to the aforementioned disastrous 2019 stretch with the Titans.
“He’s always been very calm, cool, collected,” Nagy added. “That goes for all the years he’s been playing in this league. Now that he’s been able to kind of get used to the wind and the temperature of our home games here at Soldier Field and then these other games when we’re on the road, he’s done a really good job.”
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