For the first month of the 2023 league year, the Chicago Bears have been in the business of adding senior talent to their squad. However, one of their more expensive veterans, Cairo Santos, may soon find himself on the trade market.
The starting kicker for the Bears was recently named one of the top five players who could be released before the end of the 2023 offseason by Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay. He noted that the potential cap savings of cutting him could allow Chicago to replace the 31-year-old starter with a younger, more affordable option for the upcoming season.
“While his field goal accuracy was still on point — Santos converted 21-of-23 tries — it may be time for the Bears to find a kicker who can grow with this team as it prepares to exit its rebuild and become a contender again,” Kay wrote. “With potential cap savings of $3 million via his release, Santos could be replaced by a much cheaper option.”
According to Over the Cap, the Bears still have about $35.6 million in cap space before the 2023 NFL Draft the following week, but they might use that money up quickly once they sign their rookie picks, sign a few veterans from the cut list, and possibly extend some of their current stars. Santos would be a top choice for them should more space be required.
In 2022, Cairo Santos Took A Step Back
Santos’ 21 of 23 field goal percentage in 2022 might appear to be adequate for a Bears team that still has a lot of holes to be filled on the road to contention, but a closer look reveals otherwise. Santos had the worst field-goal grade (48.5) out of the 34 kickers who attempted at least 10 of goals throughout the season, according to Pro Football Focus. It was the second-lowest rating of his career, slightly below the 47.6 he received in 2019, his only season with Tennessee, when he was let go after five games due to a game in which he missed four field goals.
Santos had a horrifying 84.4% make rate (27 of 32) in 2022, missing a career-high five PAT attempts. One of those missed opportunities occurred in the fourth quarter of the Bears’ one-point loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 10, which gave the Lions a 31-30 lead with 2:21 left and made the Bears fight for points on their final drive of the game rather than settling for OT. Even though not all of his missed extra-point attempts were as disastrous, it is still cause for concern for a team attempting to avoid another 3-14 record.
With $4.5 million of his initial $9 million contract still owed to him in 2023, Santos isn’t exactly burning the bank for the Bears, but he does have the 11th-highest cap figure on the team’s roster, ahead of Cole Kmet, Jaylon Johnson, and Darnell Mooney. If the Bears release him before June 1 and designate him as a post-June 1 release, they will save $3 million of that sum, for a total savings of $4 million. If Ryan Poles, the general manager of the Bears, finds a young kicker who better fits their rebuilding strategy, it might be plenty to tempt him.
