P Pat O’Donnell returns to Bears on 2yr, $4M deal

[UOK]

Per multiple reports.

[Mikefive]

It's the devil you know. I approve.

[Z Bear]

Now we only need a long snapper to get him the ball and all holes are filled.

[Moriarty]

Meh.

Modestly above-average payout for tolerable, below-average performance.

[Bad Flanders]

at this point, I'll take over paying for below average in any aspect of kicking just as long as the job they are doing isn't outright just LOSING the damn games.

[wab]

The Bears were among the top half of the NFL in favorable punting stats for 2018. I think O'Donnell gets beat up a little more than he should around here. He's a solidly above average punter who had issues with blocks early in his career.

[Boris13c]

O'Donnell is decent enough ... never has developed into the "next Ray Guy" as he was referred to coming out of college but he has been stable and reasonably solid

kind of interesting Tress Way, who O'Donnell won the Bears job from, has regularly performed better statistically

NFL Player Punting Statistics - 2018

[UOK]

That shit punt against the Eagles in the playoffs will always stick in my craw. Parkey’s miss overshadowed that a ton.

[wab]

I did find this nugget interesting though...

Robert Schmitz
‏
@robertkschmitz
12h12 hours ago
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The #Bears have now watched 3 career 80+% kickers have the worst years of their life with newly re-signed punter Pat O'Donnell holding for them. Gould and Parkey's kick % dropped 15 points while Barth's dropped 14 points.

Their kicking problem may not be what it seems.

I don't know that it's a solid correlation, but it's interesting.

[wab]

Looks like he copied Lemming's tweet.

Aaron Leming
‏
Verified account

@AaronLemingNFL
13h13 hours ago
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Not a big fan of the #Bears re-signing Pat O'Donnell. Inconsistent and seems to have his worst punts at the wrong time. All of that on top of the fact that he's been the holder for the last 5 years, where the team's kickers have had 1 year of (80%) or better on FGs.

Anywho... interesting tidbit.

[UOK]

I'm not quite ready to pin the garbage play of our kicking game the last 5 years on Pat O'Donnell, but I thoroughly agree with the non-clutch/inconsistent criticisms. He's been an average-to-poor NFL punter and I don't see that improving.

[AZ_Bearfan]

Laces out Pat!!!

[Mikefive]

I'd be much quicker to blame kickers moving to windy Chicago and sloppy SF turf than the holder.

[malk]

Mainly meh but I don't like it, bad use of cap space. I'd say that the extra cap space is worth more than the difference between a 25th and 7th centile punter.

[dplank]

I'd rather have applied that money towards signing Gostowski or Bryant, and drafted a Punter

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

Maybe that's why we had to restructure Mack, so we could sign O'Donnell...

[GSH]

at least we have the most handsome punter in the league, haha

[Boris13c]

Maybe that's why we had to restructure Mack, so we could sign O'Donnell...