Update:
Bears GM Ryan Pace said Wednesday that they will designate K Cody Parkey as a post-June 1 cut after the start of the league year on March 13, per Brad Biggs.
According to OverTheCap.com, the Bears will reduce Parkey’s 2019 cap hit from $5,187,500 to $4,062,500. Unfortunately, Chicago will not pick up any cap space from this move.
Bears HC Matt Nagy confirmed in an interview with NFL Network on Wednesday that they are, in fact, releasing K Cody Parkey.
“We’ve talked to Cody and Cody knows were going to go on in a different direction,” Nagy said, per Ian Rapoport. “It was a healthy talk, he took it like a true professional. We wish him the best.”
The Bears had made it clear that they were going to add competition at kicker this offseason, so there was no guarantee Parkey would win the job this summer.
Parkey, 26, originally signed on with the Colts as an undrafted free agent out of Auburn back in May of 2014. However, he was traded to the Eagles after a few months in exchange for RB David Fluellen.
Parkey lasted two years in Philadelphia before being waived and later signed with the Browns as a free agent. Cleveland elected cut Parkey loose in 2017 as they trimmed their roster down to the 53-man limit and he was claimed off of waivers by the Dolphins.
The Bears elected to sign Parkey to a four-year, $15 million contract that includes $9 million guaranteed last year. He was set to make base salaries of $2.75 million and $2.625 million over the next two years of the agreement.
In 2018, Parkey appeared in all 16 games for the Bears and converted 23 of 30 field goal attempts (76.6 percent) to go along with 42 of 45 extra point tries (93.3 percent).
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