Bears sign punter

The Bears signed punter Richmond McGee, 27, to a two-year contract Friday.

McGee spent part of the 2010 regular season on the Bears’ practice squad and part of the 2009 preseason and the 2010 off-season with them. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Eagles in 2008. In the ’09 preseason, McGee had 4 punts for 145 yards (36.3-yard net average) with two inside the 20-yard line.

Fourteen-year veteran Brad Maynard has been the Bears’ punter for the past 10 seasons, but he is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on March 4, and 2010 was not one of the 37-year-old’s better years.

Maynard’s net average of 35.2 yards was nearly 2 yards below his Bears average of 37.1. His gross average of 40.1 was exactly 2 yards less than his Bears and career averages.

In 2008, Maynard had a career-best 40 punts inside the 20-yard line, but last season he had just 24. Only once before, in 2003 when he had 23, has he had fewer.