{"id":231146,"date":"2025-05-02T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=231146"},"modified":"2025-05-02T09:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T13:58:28","slug":"jonathan-kim-bears-next-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/05\/02\/jonathan-kim-bears-next-success-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Undrafted Signing Could Be Bears&#8217; Next Success Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s worrisome knowing Chicago Bears kicker <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/tag\/cairo-santos\/\" target=\"_self\">Cairo Santos&#8217;<\/a> career-long is only 55 yards, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/tag\/ryan-poles\/\" target=\"_self\">Ryan Poles<\/a> might have found his eventual replacement. Michigan State kicker <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mzenitz\/status\/1916272189952630942\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Kim signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent<\/a> shortly after the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">2025 NFL Draft,<\/a> and he has a legitimate shot at challenging Santos for the starting job.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">J Kim is on his way to Chicago \u270d\ufe0f <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pd71j8xRwn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pd71j8xRwn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MSU_Football\/status\/1916280715244679537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Jonathan Kim Could Be Bears&#8217; Next Success Story<\/h2>\n<h3>Jonathan Kim&#8217;s Collegiate Career<\/h3>\n<p>Jonathan Kim reunites with his college teammate, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagobears.com\/news\/chicago-bears-2025-nfl-draft-luke-newman-michigan-state-offensive-line-sixth-round\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sixth-round pick Luke Newman,<\/a> as both join the Bears&#8217; roster. His college journey began at the University of North Carolina, where he <a href=\"https:\/\/michiganstate.rivals.com\/news\/michigan-state-kicker-jonathan-kim-plans-to-sign-with-chicago-bears-as-udfa\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">served primarily as a kickoff specialist<\/a> and had only one field goal attempt. Seeking a bigger role, Kim transferred to Michigan State, where he thrived. He left Michigan State holding the school&#8217;s all-time record for field goal percentage (82.1%), converting 32 of 39 attempts. He also hit 39 of 41 extra points (95.1%) during his tenure with the Spartans.<\/p>\n<p>Kim&#8217;s breakout season earned him second-team All-Big Ten honors from the coaches, media, and Associated Press in 2024, as well as honorable mentions in 2023. Notably, he went a perfect 8-for-8 on kicks from 40-49 yards and nailed a 58-yard field goal, the fourth-longest in program history. Even more impressive, he connected on three of four attempts from beyond 50 yards last season.<\/p>\n<h3>A Much-Needed Push for Cairo Santos<\/h3>\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/12\/24\/chicago-bears-kicker-agree-to-four-year-extension\/\" target=\"_self\">Santos remains under contract through 2027,<\/a> concerns about his limited range linger. He&#8217;s been a steady presence since rejoining Chicago in 2020, but opposing teams are well aware of his range limitations and planned accordingly. Here&#8217;s how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6318544\/2025\/04\/29\/bears-depth-chart-post-nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns of <em data-start=\"1795\" data-end=\"1809\">The Athletic<\/em><\/a> weighed in on the situation:<\/p>\n<p>Fishbain: &#8220;Usually a second kicker can be a literal camp body, someone to take some kicks off the veteran&#8217;s plate and can be on a team&#8217;s emergency call list. But Michigan State&#8217;s Jonathan Kim, a reported undrafted rookie addition, could also compete with Santos. It&#8217;s not easy to kick at Solider Field, and Santos has generally been outstanding, but we&#8217;ll see if this turns into a competition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jahns: &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t go that far. Santos is still signed through 2027. I know last year had its problems, but he&#8217;s still reliable. He finished the season on a high note in Green Bay, too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>A Battle to Watch<\/h3>\n<p>Jonathan Kim has the stats and production to push Cairo Santos for the starting role. With a new coaching staff in place, a &#8220;best man wins&#8221; mindset might prevail, which could open the door for Kim despite Santos&#8217; extension. Either way, letting him slip away could be a costly mistake. Finding a reliable kicker in the NFL is no easy task, and the Bears may have landed a hidden gem in Jonathan Kim.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Image: Nick King &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An undrafted free agent has a chance to become the Bears&#8217; next success story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4976,"featured_media":231166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1647,36],"tags":[32605,1336,7403,33534],"class_list":["post-231146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bears","category-nfl-draft","category-nfl-news","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-cairo-santos","tag-chicago-bears-news","tag-jonathan-kim"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231146"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231148,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231146\/revisions\/231148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}