NEWSLETTER
When push came to shove, it was Connor Barth who kicked his way onto the Chicago Bears’ season-opening 53-man roster.
However, his presence hasn’t stopped the Bears from inviting a pair of kickers for tryouts:
#Bears brought in kickers Roberto Aguayo and Josh Lambo for a tryout, per NFL source.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) October 4, 2017
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune tweets that Roberto Aguayo and Josh Lambo were both at Halas Hall to get their kicks in during a tryout. Sweet.
The Bears current kicker, Barth, has only had four attempts this season, but he’s already missed two field goals in the last two weeks. And since the start of the 2015 season, he’s connected on just 78.2 percent of his attempts. So, yeah, one place the team could pretty reasonably seek an upgrade, is kicker. We just didn’t quite see it coming. Well, sorta.
The Bears head coach, John Fox, did hint that changes were on their way after the team’s Week 4 loss to the Green Bay Packers, but after announcing Mitch Trubisky’s promotion to starting quarterback, he declined to mention if any of those changes might be coming soon. Apparently, they may be.
Onto the two kickers, themselves …
You’ll recall that this is actually a second tryout with the Bears for Aguayo, who was claimed off waivers after being cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the preseason. Even after joining the Bears, Aguayo struggled and was part of the final round of cuts as the Bears trimmed their preseason roster from 90 to 53. Fox was openly critical of Aguayo’s preseason performance, airing him out by name in a preseason meeting in the presser. Still, Aguayo is only a few years removed from being an All-American kicker at Florida State and his leg strength could be an asset if he ever gets his accuracy straightened out (Michael: heh … literally and figuratively).
As for Lambo, he last kicked with the San Diego Chargers in 2016. He spent two years in San Diego, making 81.3 percent of his field goals … but just 89.7 percent of his extra points. Lambo was on the NFL’s All-Rookie Team in 2015, but was cut at the end of training camp in favor of Yunghoe Koo. Back in September, ESPN’s Field Yates reported the Oakland Raiders tried out three kickers – including Lambo – while trying to figure out Sebastian Janikoski’s future.
