Bears Release Record-Setting Rookie & TE Amid Roster Moves

Getty The Bears waived tight end Jake Tonges with an injury designation on Tuesday.

Cairo Santos officially no longer has any competition for his placekicking job with the Chicago Bears heading into the 2023 season, not that he was in much danger of losing his starting role in the first place.

According to the team’s official transaction wire for August 8, the Bears waived rookie kicker Andre Szmyt from their 90-man roster on Tuesday afternoon amid a series of other roster moves. Chicago also waived tight end Jake Tonges with an injury designation and signed rookie tight end Lachlan Pitts and linebacker Barrington Wade.

The 24-year-old Szmyt won the Lou Groza Award given to college football’s best kicker in 2018 and holds Syracuse career records for most made field goals (85) and overall conversion percentage (80.95), among others. The Bears also met with the Lake Forest, Illinois, native during the pre-draft process and made him one of their first undrafted rookie signings earlier this spring, suggesting he would get to compete for his job.

With Szmyt now gone, though, the Bears are down to Santos as their only rostered kicker and will presumably count him as their starter for a fourth straight season.

Cairo Santos Has Been Steady Enough for Bears to Trust

Santos was a breath of fresh air for the Bears when he returned for his second stint in 2020 and brought a sense of stability to Chicago’s volatile placekicker room. Since his return, Santos has converted an impressive 90.6% of his field goals (77 of 85) and made six of his 10 attempts from 50 yards or beyond. He has also done so while playing on a modest three-year, $9 million contract that makes him the 15th-highest-paid kicker.

Still, there were — and are still — questions about Santos long-term fit with the Bears heading into the 2023 offseason. While he was near-automatic as a field-goal kicker again in 2022 — making 21 of his 23 tries and four of five from 5o yards or more — he missed a career-high five extra-point tries that came at some inopportune moments, such as their one-point loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 10’s matchup.

The Bears also could have saved some money if they decided to move on from Santos during the offseason. Even now, they could still free up $4 million cap space if they cut Santos from their roster before the start of the season. They would still be on the hook for $500,000 in 2023 and would have to pay another $500,000 in each 2024 and 2025 to him due to the void years that were previously added to his deal, but the latter two payouts are going to be part of the equation regardless — unless they extend him.

Frankly, though, for whatever mistakes bothered Santos on his extra-point kicks in 2022, he is still a perfectly capable kicker for the Bears as they continue to build up the foundation of their roster under the new front-office regime. They might even consider extending him between now and the start of the 2024 offseason; although, he turns 32 in November, which could prompt Chicago to look for a younger option in the future.

Lachlan Pitts Gives Bears Another Rookie TE to Mold

The Bears have been hacking and slashing at their tight end room since agreeing to terms on a one-year deal with veteran Marcedes Lewis last week. They have now waived two of their 2022 practice-squad tight ends with injury designations in the past week, starting with Chase Allen on August 5 and continuing with Tonges on Tuesday.

Both Allen and Tonges will revert back to the Bears’ injured reserve list if they clear the waiver wire without being claimed. Once that happens, they will either spend the entire 2023 season on IR for the Bears or negotiate an injury settlement to be cut loose at a later date once they are cleared to return from their current (undisclosed) injuries.

In the meantime, the Bears are making sure their tight end room doesn’t lose any of its backend depth with the addition of Pitts — who, before you Google it, is not related to Atlanta Falcons star Kyle Pitts.

Pitts went unselected in 2023 NFL draft in the spring after catching 28 passes for 543 yards and five touchdowns for Williams & Mary last season. While he will expectedly have a tough time making the Bears’ 53-man roster with Cole Kmet, Robert Tonyan Jr. and Lewis stacking the depth chart, he could persuade the Bears to keep him around as their fourth tight end on the practice squad this season, playing the long game with his development in hopes he can redshirt as a rookie and come back strong in Year 2.

Of course, Pitts will still have to earn it against the other rostered tight ends who are vying for a place with the Bears for the 2023 season. The Bears also have second-year Jared Pinkney — a former Los Angeles Rams tight end — and veteran Stephen Carlson competing behind their primary trio. It is possible that as many as two of them could earn spots on the team’s 14-man practice squad, but competition should determine which ones will be brought back after end-of-summer roster cuts.