When Cairo Santos was in Kansas City from 2014-16, he was a good NFL kicker. And in 2016, when he connected on 88.6 percent of his field goals (including 8-of-9 from 40+), he was one of the best kickers in the league.
Then he suffered a significant groin injury that he struggled to get over. When he joined the Bears briefly in 2017, he wasn’t healthy and aggravated that injury. From there, Santos had to reinvent the way he kicked, which led to him bouncing around from Los Angeles to Tampa Bay to Tennessee before re-joining the Bears in August.
“I had to change my steps, the way I kinda kick it to protect the groin, but that’s been the last 2-3 years or so I’ve gone through those changes,” Santos said in September. “I’m feeling so strong now and I’m very pleased with how I’ve been striking the ball, especially on kickoffs, too, pleased with that.”
The Bears have struggled to find a reliable kicker since they regrettably cut Robbie Gould in 2015, and while they were/are hopeful that 25-year-old Eddy Pineiro can develop into a longterm solution, his groin injury in training camp opened the door for Santos to revive his NFL career. After hitting the game-winner against the Bucs and nailing a 55-yarder before halftime against the Panthers, there’s real optimism that Santos is more than just a placeholder until Pineiro gets healthy. Keep in mind that he’s still only 28, which is young for a kicker. And if you listen to Nagy, you hear legitimate confidence, which he hasn’t had the luxury of expressing in his kicker since he took the head coaching job in 2018.
“When I was (in Kansas City) for those years, I always had a lot of confidence in (Santos),” Nagy said Sunday. “Every time he was there, never once did I ever think about the kick being made or the kick being missed. I’ll be honest with you, I’m really in that mode right now with him. I know that. That 55-yarder, it didn’t shock me that he hit it.”