Bears bringing back long snapper Daly to clean up field goals

Some high snaps and a poor operation turned into the final straw for rookie long snapper Beau Gardner.

The Bears signed veteran Scott Daly, a Downers Grove South High School graduate, off the New Orleans Saints practice squad Tuesday and waived Gardner, ending a short experiment that began with high hopes. Special teams coaches around the league had been intrigued by the undrafted rookie’s size (6-foot-5, 249 pounds) — especially considering college football increasingly has produced long snappers deemed too small for the NFL.

Daly, 32, played in all 34 regular-season games for the Bears over the previous two seasons, but they didn’t re-sign him in free agency. He was one of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ final cuts after training camp, spent a week on the Green Bay Packers practice squad and then was scooped up by the Saints when their long snapper, Zach Wood, was sidelined by a calf injury.

Daly was elevated from the practice squad and played in the Saints’ upset victory Sunday in Baltimore. Their decision not to add him to their 53-man roster became the Bears’ benefit. The move makes sense for Daly, who has a chance to be the primary snapper for the remainder of the season, while his gig in New Orleans was unlikely to continue after Wood returns.

Gardner had a high snap Sunday that holder Tory Taylor did a nice job of getting down in time for Cairo Santos’ 50-yard field goal, the Bears’ only points in a 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.

Trailing 6-3 with a chance to tie the score with a little more than six minutes to play, Santos’ chip-shot 23-yard attempt — essentially a gimme — was blocked as Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers came flying off the edge untouched and dived to make the play.

The Vikings responded with an 11-play drive that burned more than five minutes, all three of coach Ben Johnson’s timeouts and the two-minute warning before Will Reichard’s 39-yard field goal forced the Bears to drive for a touchdown. Backup quarterback Tyson Bagent’s bid ended on the Vikings 12-yard line.

On the blocked field goal, rookie tight end Sam Roush was the wing on the left side and didn’t touch Rodgers. The first rule of thumb is for Roush to account for the player inside of him, but he also has to get a hand on Rodgers to disrupt him.

Close review of the play revealed tight end Cole Kmet, on the opposite wing, also was late out of his stance. Perhaps Roush could be prone to a rookie mistake, but Kmet, a seven-year veteran, isn’t also going to look like he’s standing in cement. Santos also rocked back after the ball was snapped, another sign the ball came out sooner than he expected.

It stands to reason the error was on Gardner for snapping the ball before the protection was expecting, allowing Rodgers an unimpeded track to the kicking point.

It was only the third time since 1998 the Bears had a field goal of less than 30 yards blocked. Santos entered the game 68-for-70 on tries inside of 30 yards, and his last miss from that range was with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016.

The operation — the time the ball leaves the snapper’s hands to the time it’s off the kicker’s foot — should be between 1.2 and 1.3 seconds, and in this case it was closer to 1.4 as the snap was again high and tricky for Taylor to handle.

Tack on a high snap in the Week 1 victory at Carolina, and the Bears determined they’re not in position to allow Gardner the necessary time for refinement in regular-season games.

Multiple sources said there’s a high probability the Bears will re-sign Gardner to their practice squad if he clears waivers. That would signal they still believe in him as a developmental player.

More than choosing to go with a less expensive player in Gardner over Daly — a move that might have saved them a little less than $500,000 toward the salary cap — the Bears likely viewed Gardner as a potential long-term player for them. He was highly regarded coming out of Georgia and won the Patrick Mannelly Award last season that goes to the nation’s top long snapper.

In the meantime, the belief is Daly can settle down what has been a rocky operation on field goals.

The Bears also signed veteran defensive back Nick McCloud to their practice squad Tuesday and released offensive lineman Kyle Hergel.