Special Teams Woes: Hightower reacts to signing of Jake Moody

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 3 hours ago

CHICAGO - Special teams is something that you do not want to hear about because if you are hearing about the special teams unit, they are probably doing something wrong. That is the case right now with the Chicago Bears.

Kicker Cairo Santos started the season off on the wrong foot. His missed field goal in the season opener gave the Minnesota Vikings momentum and they would eventually go on to win the game. He also messed up the kickoff as the ball was supposed to go out the end of the endzone. Against the Detroit Lions the following week, the opening kickoff went out of bounds.

This prompted Chicago to sign kicker Jake Moody to the practice squad.

However, special teams coordinator Richard Hightower seemed quite adamant that Moody was not brought in to challenge Santos for the starting job.

“He’s a young, developmental player that we’re excited to work with that’s on our practice squad at the moment,” Hightower said.

Chicago is looking to get their first win of the season when they take on the Dallas Cowboys on Sun. Sept. 21 (3:25 p.m. / FOX).

The Cowboys will have the upper hand in the kicking game as they have a talented kick returner in Kavonte Turpin along with elite kicker Brandon Aubrey who made a 64-yard field goal in Dallas’ last game.

“Brandon Aubrey is a really good player. He (has) been on everybody’s radar for a while. He’s one of the best kickers in the NFL. He’s got the strongest leg (and) he can kick it from the other side of the 50. Pro Bowl player. (That) is a highly touted unit when you look at it and they have been for years,” Hightower said. “So, the kicker’s really good. The punter is a Pro Bowl player. Turpin is arguably the best returner in the NFL. He’s obviously first team All-Pro last year, two Pro Bowls in his career. Multiple Pro Bowl players over there. So, we got our hands full and we’re excited for the challenge, just like we were excited to play a Pro Bowl returner last week. So, we thrive on that. We’re excited for the challenge, but we (are) going to have our hands full this week. So, our focus is totally on Dallas and trying to get these guys stopped.”

Aubrey arguably started a trend in the NFL for kickers to regularly make kicks that are past 50 yards and even that are at least 60 yards. This is not a trend the Bears have caught onto yet since Santos is not a kicker that has ever been reliable past 50 yards although Moody was also incredibly unreliable from over 50 yards last season.

Perhaps Chicago should look into some other options for kickers in the offseason.

“High 50s, mid 50s are normal. I wouldn’t say 60s aren’t normal yet. We’re getting there. But, my appreciation for it is (I think) it’s awesome. Now you can do different things when it comes to your fourth down aggression and things like that,” Hightower said. “So, kickers are definitely getting better, just like returners are getting better, just like core players are getting better and I think the kickers being better is also going (to) help the kickoff too (because) the kickoff now (is) a real play. So, just from that standpoint, I really like the direction the game’s headed right now.”