The Chicago Bears will no longer have Jake Moody on hand as a fill-in kicker — or future starting candidate — as they finish out the rest of the 2025 season.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Washington Commanders are signing Moody off the Bears’ practice squad and to their 53-man roster as their new placekicker after releasing veteran Matt Gay — who missed two field goals in Week 11 — on Monday.
The Bears had signed Moody — the 99th overall pick in 2023 — to their practice squad as a developmental kicker on September 13 following his release from the San Francisco 49ers, but he kicked in two games for them as an injury replacement for Cairo Santos.
In two games, Moody knocked through eight of nine field-goal attempts, including all four of his tries in Week 7’s win over the New Orleans Saints. He also made three PATs.
With Moody poached, the Bears could seek out another backup kicker to replace him on their practice squad in the weeks ahead as they battle for a place in the NFL playoffs.
The Bears (7-3) will host the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-4) for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday.
Cairo Santos’ Limitations Are Starting to Hurt Bears
In terms of the immediate future, the Bears are not losing much with Moody. They are committed to Santos as their primary placekicker and seem unlikely to shift away from him for the rest of the 2025 season unless another injury were to force their hand.
From a long-term perspective, though, they may have just lost a legitimate candidate to take over the starting job from Santos, whose limitations are starting to hurt the Bears.
Santos has been reliable for the Bears in 2025 on field-goal attempts from fewer than 40 yards away, but his inconsistency on longer-distance kicks has started to show. He has missed two kicks from the 40-to-49-yard range and two more from at least 50 yards out. The Bears have also avoided kicking field goals in the 50-plus-yard range multiple times this season, seemingly unable to trust in the strength of Santos’ kicking leg.
The issue of leg strength has even impacted the Bears in kickoff situations. In Week 1’s 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Santos not only hooked a 50-yard field goal wide right but also failed to boot the ball out of the back of the end zone before the Vikings’ final possession — which the Bears had wanted to do in order to conserve clock time.
Instead, the Vikings fielded the return and burned enough time off the clock to bring them to the two-minute warning, depriving the Bears of a valuable clock-stopper.
The Bears won’t have a convenient way to replace Santos if his distance issues continue to hurt them, now that Moody is bound for the Commanders, but it could prompt them to seek out better options for their kicking game once they reach the 2026 offseason.
Could Bears Possibly Circle Back to Jake Moody in 2026?
Moody will now expectably slot in as the Commanders’ primary placekicker for the rest of the 2025 campaign (so long as he avoids his own issues on inconsistency), but the Bears could potentially circle back to him in 2026 if they have regrets about losing him.
Moody will become a free agent in 2026 unless the Commanders work to re-sign him. He would have remained under contract through 2026 if the 49ers had not waived him — or if another team had claimed him off waivers along with his four-year rookie deal. Since he cleared waivers, though, Moody will hit unrestricted free agency in March.
Now, the Commanders could always prevent Moody from reaching free agency if he delivers as their placekicker over the second half of the 2025 season and they opt to offer him a contract extension. If Moody does reach free agency, though, the Bears could consider investing in him more substantially if they want to move off Santos.
Santos is under contract with the Bears through the 2027 season, but they can release him with a minimal salary-cap penalty in the offseason if they feel his leg strength isn’t up to snuff anymore. Of course, Santos has at least seven more games to save his job in 2025 and has already nailed a few game-winners this season to earn brownie points.
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