Chicago Sun-Times

Cody gets a kicker picker-upper

- BY PATRICK FINLEY | STAFF REPORTER pfinley@suntimes.com | @patrickfin­ley

Coach Matt Nagy isn’t going to worry about kicker Cody Parkey just yet — even after he missed his third field goal of the preseason, a 39-yarder, in the Bears’ exhibition finale Thursday.

Parkey’s two other misses were 52-yarders.

“The weather’s going to be the biggest thing as we go here with how he does,” Nagy said Thursday night. “But he has a couple of longer ones that he’s missed that I know, just from both of us talking after the games the next day, that obviously he wants them back. And I just let him know, ‘Hey, man, I’ve got full confidence in you. You miss a couple in a row, we don’t want you to miss them, but I’m not going to stop kicking them.’ ”

With $9 million guaranteed from a fouryear, $15 million deal he signed in March, Parkey isn’t going anywhere.

He said earlier this week that his preseason has been better than outsiders would think. He was 8-for-11 on field goals and made all 13 extra points.

“I’ve had a really successful preseason,” he said.

Cuts loom

The Bears’ front office and coaching staff met Friday to talk through the team’s final 53-man roster, which is due at 3 p.m. Saturday. Once the Bears file their roster, it still may change — they’ll play the waiver wire on Sunday morning. Once waivers have passed, the Bears will assemble a 10-man practice squad in time for practice Monday at Halas Hall.

The Bears weren’t among the 12 NFL teams to submit cuts to the league’s transactio­n wire Friday. General manager Ryan Pace typically doesn’t make any move official until cut day.

Nagy said Thursday that he and Pace already had “discussed a good majority” of the team’s roster decisions but wanted to hear opinions from their staff members.

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Cody Parkey

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