The Bears’ contingency plan for Eddy Piñeiro will be a familiar face.
One so familiar, he was on the roster as recently as Saturday morning:
#Bears are expected to re-sign K Cairo Santos to the practice squad.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) September 6, 2020
Cairo Santos is expected to return to the Bears. And once it’s officially official, he’ll be back as a member of the practice squad. Santos, 28, will serve as an insurance policy for Piñeiro, the team’s regular kicker. For what it’s worth, there were other options available. Steven Hauschka, Chase McLaughlin, and Matt Gay come to mind. But evidently, the Bears are most comfortable with Santos — despite his 68.8 percent success rate in 19 games since the start of the 2017 season. Kickers can be streaky, but recent trends are awfully alarming.
When the Bears first brought Santos back into the fold, Head Coach Matt Nagy insisted the move as a forward-thinking one. The idea was to have reserve options in case COVID-19 sidelined his top kicking option. But more recently, Santos’ presence is more necessary than before because Piñeiro is nursing a groin injury. The issue has been serious enough to keep him from practicing and could put him out of action for Week 1.
We’ll keep an eye on Piñeiro’s status throughout the week. Perhaps we’ll have more clarity on his situation as early as today, when Nagy is expected to address the media. Stay tuned…