Seeing Cairo Santos show up on the injury report missing the last two practices due to personal reasons was concerning. Firstly, because we hope Santos is OK as he deals with these issues. But also, a potential Santos absence was met with concern because the Bears didn’t have a backup kicker in the building.
In the end, we have answers to any questions we had about Santos’ availability for Sunday’s game against the against the Giants:
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Santos won’t travel with the team. And in a corresponding move, the Bears signed kicker Michael Badgley to their practice squad and immediately flexed him onto the active roster. Meaning Badgley will be the Bears’ kicker on Sunday in Santos’ place.
Here’s what we had to say about the new guy yesterday:
Michael Badgley, a.k.a. The Money Badger, is a 27-year-old kicker who has spent time with the Chargers (2018-20), Colts (2021), and Titans (2021). The 2020 campaign was a disaster for Badgley, as he made just 72.7 percent of his kicks. But in the two years prior (23/32, 87.5% in 18 games) and year that followed (18/22, 81.8%) weren’t disastrous.
It is a bummer that the Bears will be without Santos. Hopefully, Badgley can fill in for him without missing a beat.