The Chicago Bears are beginning their offseason search for a new kicker early.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Friday the Bears are working out free agent kicker Nick Folk, per a source informed of the situation.
Folk spent the bulk of his 11-year NFL career with the New York Jets after three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He last participated in the regular season in 2017, playing just four games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Folk will not be the last kicker the Bears try out, as they seem destined to move on from Cody Parkey. Rapoport reported other kickers would be in the workout, including Blair Walsh, who played five seasons for the Vikings before last playing for the Seahawks in 2017, and Austin MacGinnis, who was in the Chicago mini-camp last year.
Parkey was on thin ice even before the double-doink partially tipped field goal miss in the playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, converting on just 76.7 percent of his field-goal attempts with three missed extra points in the regular season.
Working out kickers like Folk in mid-January offers further credence to the idea that the Bears intend to move on from Parkey.
