Bears remain confident in Cody Parkey after nighttime kicking session at Soldier Field

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Neither coach Matt Nagy or special teams coordinator Chris Tabor seemed particularly amused by multiple Chicago TV stations sending helicopters over Soldier Field for Cody Parkey’s nighttime kicking session there on Wednesday, but both said the returns were positive for the 26-year-old kicker.
 
While the coverage of Parkey may feel over-the-top at times, it can also be viewed as a signal of the Bears’ return to relevance here in Chicago. Had it been Connor Barth missing four kicks off the uprights in a game during 2017’s dour 5-11 season, news choppers wouldn’t have flown over Soldier Field to shoot film of him practicing that the Bears would ultimately request be taken off the airwaves and internet.
 
“I get it, from this standpoint,” Tabor said. “We’ve all been at home, ‘Oh, the kicker missed it!’ There’s not a lot of people out there that can kick the ball. There’s been kicking troubles all around the league, multiple teams, guys working out multiple guys. There’s not a plethora of players out there that can do that skill.
 
“I just think he stays the course. That’s his strength. The good news is we didn’t see anything really technically wrong. Let’s tweak the line. Let’s get a little bit more comfortable in our environment and then let your God-given ability take over.”
 
Tabor had a good idea of who the Bears were getting in Parkey when they signed him to a four-year, $15 million contract with $9 million guaranteed in March (that guaranteed money figure is the third-highest among NFL kickers). Back in 2016, when Tabor was the special teams coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, his team brought Parkey in one day before a Week 3 road game against the Miami Dolphins. Parkey missed three of six field goal attempts in that game, but came back a week later and drilled a 51-yard field goal against Washington that proved a lot about him to Tabor.
 
And it’s that prior knowledge of Parkey, coupled with what he’s seen from his kicker mentally since he got to Chicago, that gives Tabor confidence a day like Parkey had against the Detroit Lions won’t happen again.
 
“I know what’s under the hood with this kid,” Tabor said. “That’s why I’m excited for him. I believe in him. I know what type of day that was. We all get it. At the end of the day, we did win the game. That’s a positive.
 
“But you also understand that as we move forward in this journey, it’s going to come down to field goal kicks and that’s his job and he’s really good at it and I have confidence in him. I believe in him.”
 
The Bears invested all that money into Parkey back in March with the belief he would be the long-term solution to the kicking woes that’ve followed this franchise since Robbie Gould missed a game-winning kick and a game-tying kick in consecutive weeks late in the 2015 season, leading to his release (and subsequent career re-birth with the San Francisco 49ers). Part of the consternation, certainly outside Halas Hall, with Parkey’s struggles is in relation to Gould’s success — he’s made 70 of 73 field goals since the Bears let him go, including five and a game-winner in San Francisco’s 15-14 win at Soldier Field last year.
 
But Parkey did miss what would’ve been a game-winning 53-yard try against the Dolphins in Week 6, and has missed five of his last 11 kicks at Soldier Field as fall continues its losing battle to winter along Lake Michigan. The Bears still believe he can make a critical kick in a close game, though, perhaps as soon as this weekend.
 
“He’s doing well,” Tabor said. “He understands. But I’ll say this about him: The good news is the way he prepares, he sets himself up to be successful. Last week, I have to admit: I’ve seen misses. I’ve never seen four misses hit the uprights before.
 
“… He actually struck the ball really well and then it just leaked on him. Every upright that it hit was the way the wind was blowing so to be able to go down to the stadium and continue with that thought process and learning the lines and finding those things, I think it’s gonna be very beneficial for him. He’d only missed one kick in Soldier Field. It’s a learning experience.”

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