The Cody Parkey Challenge: My thoughts

If you've been here since my early days, you know I've got a love for all things special teams.  Kick returns, kickers, punters...all up my alley.  I'm even in a yearly fantasy league where we have punters.  Special teams are the best.

So I've been following this Chicago Bears kicking situation pretty closely.  If you've been under a rock, the basics of this situation are as follows:
1. The Bears cut Robbie Gould at the end of 2016.
2. The 2017 Bears have three kickers who go a combined 16/22 on attempts.  Yuck.
3. The 2018 Bears decide to remedy this situation by signing Cody Parkey to a multi-year deal, who had hit 91.3% of his field goals in Miami the year before.
4. Parkey hits 76.7% of his regular season field goals before missing/having blocked what should've been an easy-ish field goal to lose the playoffs.  Fans call for his head.  Parkey then goes on the Today show to talk about it.  Fans are even more pissed.
5. The Bears cut Parkey and start an open competition for his spot.

So that's where we're kind of at.  I've been monitoring the situation to see what happens, and figured a Robbie Gould trade might be in the works, especially since he's asked for a trade out of San Francisco recently.  But that hasn't happened, which makes today's news that the eight kickers in camp that only 2/8 kickers in camp passed the Cody Parkey Challenge (A kick from 43 yards out) the other day particularly juicy.  So juicy that it made me want to look at the kickers involved, see their chances, and talk about any free agents out there who might be better ideas!  So below are my thoughts.

The 2/8 who made the challenge:

John Baron II - Invited to kick as an undrafted free agent a week ago out of San Diego State.  Baron is a lefty kicker who went 50/60 on attempts over his college career, but just 17/22 (A Parkey-ian 77%) last year.  His NFL Draft profile also notes that he's not weather tested and that he hit just 66% of his attempts between 30 and 45 yards last year.  Not great for a lefty kicker, which in and of itself is a big adjustment for most special teams units.

Spencer Evans - Also invited to kick as a UFA, out of Purdue (Spent two years there after beginning college at Purdue).  Evans is a more traditional righty kicker, who was 26/34 lifetime at Purdue (76%).  His longest field goal last year was just 41 yards, but he did hit a 49 yarder during his first year at Purdue.  He's a little limited in experience, what with the transfer and a Junior year where he alternated kicks with J.D. Dellinger for the entirety of the season.  He's shown a big leg on kickoffs though, so the leg strength might be there for Evans.  Very hard to know.

The 6/8 who missed:

Redford Jones - Jones was signed in January, really soon after Parkey's big miss.  He's out of Tulsa, where he hit 74.6% of field goals (Long of 51) over a three year career that ended in 2017.  I can't really find a lot more on him, but he was the first kicker in the door, so he's got that going for him, which is nice.  I also read from a local writer or two that he has been one of the more impressive kickers in camp so far.

Chris Blewitt - The second kicker signed to an actual contract, during March.  Blewitt was a four year starter at Pitt, was in camp with the 2017 Steelers on a tryout basis, but has been looking for a job ever since.  His 69.6% rate at Pitt does not look great, but a career long of 56 yards does, and he turned a few heads recently after performing well at industry great Jamie Kohl's kicking camp.  That got him the Bears signing, and it's interesting to note that the Bears also signed Jamie Kohl himself as a kicking consultant yesterday.  Blewitt is listed on their site, so you have to wonder if this gives him a leg up on the competition, even with yesterday's miss and his unfortunate last name.

Elliott Fry - Fry has the most professional experience of this bunch, as he just went a perfect 14/14 (Long of 44 yards) for the Orlando Apollos of the short lived AAF.  He also is on contract, one that's technically three years, not that that means anything in today's age of non-guarantees (He was signed in April after the NFL was finally allowed to sign AAF players).  Finally, I love oddball league castoffs, and would love to see Fry pull a Rod "He Hate Me" Smart or Tommy Maddox, so he's my rooting interest here.  He hit 75% of his college field goals along with 161/162 extra points, so his consistency numbers seem to be in line with the best of this list so far.  It's also worth noting that several Bears beat writers have mentioned Fry as one of the top contenders so far, and that he did hit a 43 yard field goal under pressure prior to the final kick.

Casey Bednarski  - Definitely has the best hair in this contest.  Bednarski was invited as a UFA out of Minnesota State Mankato, a D2 school.  He has a huge leg, as measured by his school record 63 yard field goal in September of 2017.  His accuracy is okay overall, with 40/50 field goals hit during college, but he hit only 65% last year, so the jury is out on that.  His leg is definitely strong though, and I get major Sebastian Janikowski vibes.  I've read that he's the best looking kicker of the invitees to date.  He also kicked in a cold weather spot, which has got to look good to the Chicago brass.

Emmit Carpenter - Carpenter kicked for the Minnesota Golden Gophers in college, where he his 53/67 field goals (79%).  Doing that on 67 attempts (More than most of the list) is nice, and shows quite a bit of consistency from Carpenter.  He also hit several field goals over 50 yards last year with a long of 53 yards.  Definitely seems like a contender here, contracts and kick makers be damned.

Justin Yoon - The final camp invite, Yoon kicked for Notre Dame the past few years.  He was the number two kicking recruit in the nation going into Notre Dame, and brought this to Notre Dame with a 59/73 career rate (80%), best on this list.  Basically he's a slightly more consistent version of Emmit Carpenter who attempted a few less long field goals (I count just one field goal over 50 yards over four years, though plenty over 40 yards).  He and Carpenter were added to the list of invitees later, but with both guys having many more kicks under their belt than the rest of the bunch, you have to wonder if they'll rise to the top given time.

Non-camp veterans to consider:

Matt Bryant was a Pro Bowler as recently as 2016, and hit 95.2% of his field goals (Including a 57 yarder) in last year's 13 game, injury-shortened season.  He'd be a no-duh add for the Bears, although they don't seem interested at the moment, possibly due to a lot of his kicking taking place in a dome in recent years and his likely desire for a multi-year contract.

Kai Forbath has been a journeyman for basically his entire career, including going 4/5 last year for the Jaguars.  He did hit 89% of his field goals during 2016-17 with the Vikings, but they still moved on.  I think he's a great kicker, and I think the Bears would do well with him.

Everyone else is either pretty inconsistent or Cody Parkey.  So I'll end the list here.

That all being said, who do I think should win the job as of now?

1. Matt Bryant - He's old, but he's way better than anything else out there.  Sign the man, even if it takes a few years.

2. Elliott Fry - He's a little battle tested, and he's got the AAF connection.

3. Emmit Carpenter/Justin Yoon - They're looking for consistency, and these guys definitely have that, with me probably giving a slight edge to Carpenter with him having a bit more success from 50+.

5. Casey Bednarski - Badass kickers are cool.  He's hit a 70 yarder in practice before and could probably beat up your Dad.

I'll try to update this every week or so with updates on the situation.  Hopefully it'll be a glorious journey!