By Jeremy Harris
He was the last link to a Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl team. His 11-year stint with the Bears was defined by numerous clutch field goals and a rewriting of the team’s record book. But his smooth ride suddenly hit a pothole on Lake Shore Drive, leading to a slew of devastating botched field goal attempts.
He became too pricey in the salary cap era and was controversially jettisoned by the Bears.
If you assumed we were writing Robbie Gould’s post-season Bears obituary, your kick sailed wide right. The mystery kicker described above is none other than 1985 Super Bowl champion Kevin Butler.
However, that description could soon apply to Robbie Gould after he missed two field goal attempts last Sunday, the second one from 36 yards as time expired in regulation. His hooked attempt created just enough of a breeze to open the door for the San Francisco 49ers to defeat the Bears in overtime.
His recent misses of several crucial field goal attempts has plummeted the price of Gould and recalled the crash of Butler.
Kevin Butler, selected by the Bears in the fourth round of the 1985 draft, converted 15 game-winning field goals during his eleven years kicking for Chicago. Twelve of his daggers occurred between 1986 and 1990 and a stunning seven in the 1986 and 1987 seasons.
Butler was the steady-at-the-tiller kicker for a Bears’ team that won Super Bowl XX and claimed five NFC Central titles between 1985 and 1990.
However, between 1991 and 1994, the shine on Butler’s right kicking shoe became increasingly scuffed. As regulation expired in tie games against the Miami Dolphins in 1991 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 1992, Butler missed field goal attempts that set up overtime losses.
Butler had also missed earlier field goal attempts of 24 and 47 yards, respectively, in the 1991 and 1992 games.
In 1994, Butler missed a kick from 40 yards in overtime of a game against Minnesota that the Bears would eventually lose. In a 1992 visit to Tampa Bay, the Bears furiously fought back from a 20-0 deficit but fell three points short when Butler missed a field goal attempt of 44 yards at the end of regulation.
Finally, against the Los Angeles Raiders in 1993, Butler’s second of two missed field goal attempts, this one from 30 yards as time expired, cost the Bears a certain victory in a game they lost 16-14.
In the 1996 preseason, the Bears released the veteran Butler. He left Chicago holding virtually every field-goal-related franchise record, including the most field goals made and the highest accuracy among kickers with at least 100 attempts.
Fast forward nine years.
Gould joined the team before its fourth game of the 2005 season and has since enjoyed the longest continuous tenure of any Bears’ kicker since Butler. In his eleven-year stint with Chicago, he has shattered virtually all of Butler’s team records and is the ninth most-accurate kicker in league history. Gould is the only player remaining from the 2006 NFC Champion Bears, and including the playoffs, he has drilled 12 game-winning field goals.
But the canary perched atop the goal posts at Soldier Field is singing loudly that the Bears need to make the same difficult decision at season’s end with Gould that they did with Butler almost 20 years ago.
This is not a knee-jerk reaction to Sunday’s blown kicks, even though they probably mortally wounded the Bears’ resurgent playoff chances. Gould has had other critical misses, all in the last three seasons.
As we discussed at the time, then-head coach Marc Trestman committed coaching malpractice in allowing Gould to attempt a 47-yard field goal on second down with over four minutes remaining in an overtime game at Minnesota in 2013. But the fact remains that Gould missed the indoor attempt and the Bears lost a game that would cost them the division title.
Gould’s two missed kicks of 47 and 34 yards against the San Diego Chargers this season in a 22-19 Bears’ win could have proved disastrous. Last season against the Carolina Panthers, Gould missed a field goal attempt of 35 yards just before halftime with the Bears leading 21-7 in a game they would lose 31-24. Gould is starting to evidence the same downward spiral that repeatedly left the Bears and their fans exasperated by Butler in his final seasons in Chicago.
However, but for his additional downside, Gould could probably be forgiven for the occasional critical missed field goal. But Gould has the fifth highest salary- cap figure, $3.6 million, among NFL kickers this season. His cap figure for the next two seasons, $4.1 million, presently ranks second in the league among kickers for those seasons. If the Bears were to release Gould before next season, the dead money against the cap of $1.2 million would create a salary cap savings of $2.9 million.
Additionally, only three times in eleven seasons has Gould been in the top half of the league in touchback percentage, and the last three years, he has ranked 21st, 28th and 26th.
The league moved kickoffs up five yards to the kicking team’s 35 yard line before the 2011 season to increase the number of touchbacks and to reduce the number of injuries suffered from the high speed collisions that occur regularly on kickoff returns. Gould’s lackluster touchback rate is leaving Bears’ special teams players more susceptible to injury.
He is also giving opposing teams a chance to break off big returns; the Bears have allowed two kickoff returns for touchdowns this season. A kicker with a high touchback rate can mask his team’s leaky coverage units.
Like Butler, Gould will always be celebrated for his place in Bears’ lore. But also like Butler in 1996, Gould’s tenure with the Bears has run its course after 11 seasons. The Bears need a stronger-footed, less-expensive and more reliable kicker than Gould has been the past three seasons.
And we not suggesting the Bears pursue Carlos Huerta.