The 49ers might want to get free agent Robbie Gould locked up before someone else does.
If any of you managed to catch that wild card game on Sunday evening you’d have seen Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles go legendary backup quarterback once again to put the Eagles ahead with a minute to go. You’d also see a different legend of Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky brew as he put them 43 yards away from winning the thing. Well, he would have, except that same legend crumbled to ashes just as it began once kicker Cody Parkey hit the uprights twice with the same kick thanks to a deflection. 2019 takes right where 2018 left off for kickers and claims its first victim.
Regardless if the kick was a great play by Eagles special teams or a bad kick by Parkey, the only person who felt better than Nick Foles after he put the Eagles ahead begin this sequence of events? Former Bears kicker and current San Francisco 49ers free agent Robbie Gould. Because the Bears were crazy enough to let this guy go. The New York Giants made a just as questionable decision letting him go. The 49ers reaped the rewards.
2018 had kickers missing everything; chip shots, extra points, you name it and they were whiffing. Not Gould, he has only one field goal and extra point apiece missed. That’s it.
Gould was in Chicago, attending the game. However, this wasn’t a trip as his family resides there. Not only does his family reside there, but he’s been put up in hotels in the Bay Area each season with the 49ers to do his kicking duties. That’s less than ideal. Given that he wasn’t just in Chicago, but at the game, one has to wonder if the Bears are going to come to his house with a Brinks truck and ask him to come back. And again, last night was not square on Parkey’s shoulders as Eagles defender Treyvon Hester got a hand on the kick later to be known as “Double-Doink.”
But when you have a choice between Gould and Parkey, and Gould has his family in Chicago, and has that statline, who are you going to look at in the offseason if you’re the Bears front office?
The 49ers have the edge as they can start negotiations and prevent that from happening. Once the league year begins in March, that’s off the table and 31 other teams can come for him, a franchise tag notwithstanding. And none of those 31 teams would be more attractive than Chicago with his family and home there. Gould may not come cheap. But I ask this: What’s more expensive? An accurate kicker or the games lost because the kicker teams had couldn’t kick? And once again, Parkey isn’t the reason the Bears lost the game but do you want to chance the 49ers with someone else?
Of course a lot of this can be out of the 49ers’ hands. Gould may have had enough of staying hotels each season and being miles away from his wife and children—that’s rough on anyone. If the Bears were to ask him to return, the commute alone may force a decision, one we can understand. Maybe his mind is already made up, which again, who can argue with the reasoning?
But if there is any chance, any inkling of desire that Gould wants to return to San Francisco, the 49ers need to get this taken care of right now. Because as the clock ticks, the Bears are looking like too good of an option.