LAKE FOREST, Illinois - Two weeks after being released by the New York Jets, Doug Brien has hooked up with the Chicago Bears.
The veteran kicker signed a one-year contract with the Bears on Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The Jets cut Brien on April 28, five days after selecting Ohio State kicker Mike Nugent with their first pick in the NFL draft.
Brien came under fire after missing two potential game-winning field goals in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter in the Jets' divisional playoff overtime loss at Pittsburgh last January.
With a chance to snap a 17-17 tie, Brien came up inches short, hitting the crossbar on a 47-yard attempt with 1:58 left in regulation. On the ensuing play, cornerback David Barrett returned an interception 24 yards to the Pittsburgh 37. That gave Brien another opportunity from 43 yards, but he hooked his attempt badly to the left.
Jeff Reed kicked a 33-yard field goal 11:04 into overtime to give Pittsburgh the win.
Brien had converted the game-winning 28-yard field goal in overtime in the wild-card round win over San Diego the previous week.
Brien converted 51-of-61 field goal attempts and 57-of-58 extra points over the last two seasons with the Jets.
A veteran of 11 seasons and six teams, Brien ranks as the 10th-most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history at 81.1 percent among kickers with a minimum of 100 attempts.
Daniel Snyder has defined incompetence, failure and greed to true Washington Redskins fans for over a decade and a half. Stay away from football operations !!!
The battle for the kicking job in Chicago is over. The Bears released kicker Paul Edinger on Sunday, according to the team's official website, leaving Doug Brien as leading candidate to handle the team's kicking duties this season. Edinger performed well early in his five-year run with the team, but fell into a slump over the last two years. The five-year veteran has missed 18 of his last 43 kicks.
OUR VIEW
Brien had been considered the favorite to win the kicking job, at least in part to the $1.1 million salary that Edinger was scheduled to earn in 2005. However, the timing of Edinger's release is somewhat surprising, as team officials had indicated that they would keep him on the roster and allow him to compete for the starting job in training camp. Most observers believed the team's true motive was to prevent Edinger from signing with the division-rival Vikings, who are believed to be in the market for a veteran kicker.
The Vikings were expected to be among the teams that would attempt to sign free agent kicker Paul Edinger, who was released by the Bears on Sunday. However, Edinger's agent claims that team officials have not returned his calls. "When the Bears gave us permission to talk to other teams a couple of weeks ago, I put calls in to five to seven teams that I thought had some level of interest," agent Ken Harris told the Star Tribune. "The Vikings never called back. I don't know where their interest is now." In 2003, the Vikings signed Edinger to a five-year, $7 million contract tender, which was matched by the Bears.
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Although one phone call to Edinger's agent could change everything, it appears the Vikings are once again banking on kicker Aaron Elling. The Vikings actually released Elling after he got off to a bad start last year, but team officials have been impressed with the improvement he's shown during the offseason workouts.
"I was on the sideline and guys were talking about the score, and then it hit me -- we won by 21. I came in the locker room and I yelled it out, and immediately I just kind of broke down in tears. Because I miss Sean, you know."
