As Bears kicker Cairo Santos braces for another season of wild conditions at Soldier Field, widely regarded as the most difficult venue for his position, he knows he’ll always be a long shot at top honors like making the Pro Bowl or the All-Pro team.
Kicking by the lakefront will always weigh down his numbers, making it nearly impossible to compete with the best kickers, who often make 95-97%. Santos is the most accurate field-goal kicker in Bears history at 90.4% overall and 90.7% at Soldier Field for his career, but hasn’t finished higher than sixth in the NFL over the past four seasons.
Robbie Gould made the Pro Bowl just once in 11 seasons with the Bears, doing so with an 88.9% mark in 2006. Santos has topped that three of the last four seasons.
He was ninth last season at 92.1% — the second-best mark by a Bear. The Titans’ Nick Folk led the league by making 96.7%, and the Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey was first-team All-Pro after hitting 94.7%, including 10 of 10 on kicks of 50-plus yards.
“I had a great year, but you’re gonna have a few misses here and there due to the weather,” Santos said. “You have to have almost a perfect season to compete with dome kickers.”
The Bears value his expertise, regardless. General manager Ryan Poles extended him last year on a deal worth $3.9 million per season through 2027. That average pay ranked 13th at the time, though it fell to 19th this season.
Santos said he has been preparing for winds of 10-12 miles per hour and gusts up to 20 miles per hour for the game against the Titans on Sunday.
“There’s gonna be times we’re not gonna be able to kick deep field goals and we’ll see kickers missing extra points,” he said of kicking at Soldier Field in general. “It’s OK as long as I show I’m somebody that can respond and get back on track and not derail mentally. It’s so hard to be perfect here or have as high of a percentage as other kickers in the NFL.”
The playing surface at Soldier Field was fully resodded Aug. 15 ahead of the Bears’ Aug. 17 preseason game against the Bengals. After some wear from the P!nk concert Aug. 24, the north side of the field was resodded from the goal line to the wall.