AuburnFamilyNews.com: Cody Parkey leaves Miami Dolphins for $15 million contract

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Cody Parkey leaves Miami Dolphins for $15 million contract


Former Auburn place-kicker Cody Parkey is on the move again in the NFL. He's leaving the Miami Dolphins after one season to join the Chicago Bears on Wednesday, the opening day of free agency.

NFL Network reported Parkey has a four-year, $15 million contract with the Bears, including $9 million in guaranteed money. Parkey had a base salary of $690,000 in 2017. That ranked tied for 22nd among the NFL's kickers.

Six kickers currently have contracts worth more than $15 million, and only two -- Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens and Stephen Gostkowski of the New England Patriots -- have more than $9 million in guaranteed money in their contracts.

The Bears' place-kickers made 72.7 percent of their field-goal attempts in 2017. Only three teams were worse.

Chicago released kicker Robbie Gould, the franchise's all-time scoring leader, before the 2016 season in favor of Connor Barth. The Bears cut Barth 10 games into the 2017 and picked up Cairo Santos. Santos kicked in one game before getting hurt in warmups for the Dec. 3 game against the San Francisco 49ers. Thirteen-year veteran Mike Nugent kicked for Chicago in the final four games of 2017.

Chicago will be Parkey's fourth NFL stop after he made 21 of his 23 field-goal attempts during the 2017 season for Miami.

Parkey broke into the NFL with a bang in 2014 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He made 32-of-34 field-goal attempts and all 54 of his PAT attempts to set an NFL rookie scoring record with 150 points and earn a Pro Bowl invitation.

But in the third game of his second season, Parkey suffered a season-ending groin injury. After looking over its kickers during the 2016 season in training camp and the preseason, the Eagles decided to go with Parkey's 2015 replacement, Caleb Sturgis.

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An injury in Cleveland brought Parkey to the Browns for the third game of 2016, and he spent the rest of the season as their kicker.

Cleveland selected NCAA record-holder Zane Gonzalez from Arizona State in the seventh round of the 2017 NFL Draft and kept him as its kicker last year, releasing Parkey in the final cut to reach the regular-season roster limit of 53 players.

The Dolphins claimed Parkey off waivers and cut Andrew Franks, their kicker for the previous two seasons.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.



from Auburn Sports Impact http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2018/03/cody_parkey_leaves_miami_dolph.html

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