Bears ink Pitt's Blewitt to join kicking competition
The Bears are signing Pitt product Chris Blewitt to join their kicking competition.
The Panthers' all-time scoring leader, Blewitt emerged from the Bears' second group tryout at Halas Hall. He'll battle the winner from the first tryout, Tulane place-kicker Redford Jones, and perhaps additional challengers to replace Cody Parkey, whose release one season into a four-year, $15 million deal will become official when the new league year opens March 13.
Blewitt last kicked at Pitt in 2016, when he connected on 10-of-17 FG attempts, including the 48-yard game-winner in the closing seconds to beat No. 2 Clemson. After going undrafted following a four-year career in which he converted 55-of-79 (69.6 percent, long of 56) FG attempts, his only known NFL opportunity was attending a Steelers minicamp in 2017.
Blewitt was on the Bears' radar at least in part because he won Jamie Kohl's field-goal competition last month in Phoenix, according to the Tribune. Kohl, an ESPN high school specialist ranker, holds kicking camps and had 62 former campers on NFL rosters last summer (including Parkey). He also worked with Jones, who signed with the Bears last month.
The Bears will designate Parkey's release as post-June 1, allowing them to spread his remaining $5.1 million cap hit over two years. But with only around $16 million in cap space as the new league year opens, after paying Parkey $9 million last season, it seems unlikely they'll make any big splashes in pro free agency.
That leaves the Bears holding group tryouts as they "exhaust every avenue possible" to stabilize their most volatile position since franchise scoring leader Robbie Gould was released three years ago.
"For us, this is all about production in any position," reigning coach of the Year Matt Nagy said of replacing Parkey, whose "double-doink" heard round the world in overtime of the wild-card defeat to the Eagles stunningly halted the Bears' 12-4 breakthrough season.
"There are a lot of errors that go on with different positions that don't get seen. With a kicker, you either make it or you don't. It's clear-cut. So it's production. It's the same thing with coaches. You either win or you lose. If you lose, you're out.
"Now, as far as what we're looking for, and this is the big challenge now, is to find that guy who can come in here and make those kicks. It's not easy. There's no exact science to it, but we're going to do everything we can to exhaust every avenue possible, whatever that means, and I don't know if I have that answer yet. But I promise you this: We're going to give it all we've got."
• Arthur Arkush is the managing editor for Pro Football Weekly. For more on the NFL, visit profootballweekly.com and follow Arthur on Twitter @arthurarkush or @PFWeekly.