Kicker Cairo Santos has spent the past two seasons in Chicago, so he knows what to expect at Soldier Field. But normally the field conditions aren’t this bad this early.
The team practiced at the stadium Tuesday to prepare for the preseason opener against the Chiefs.
“Especially Week 1, our first game of the season,” Santos said, via Jason Leiser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve seen better. It’s just what we have to deal with. The less of a problem you make it in your mind, it helps you overcome it and just go.”
The NFL’s worst field conditions are so bad that Santos said he practices on poorly maintained public parks in Florida to prepare him for what he faces at Soldier Field.
“I was going to a turf field at a high school, which was perfect,” Santos said. “It was almost like, ‘OK, I’m getting too comfortable.’ So in my neighborhood, there’s a soccer field, and the grass is a Bermuda grass. It’s real long. I was like, ‘OK. This is more like it.’
“The ball flies different. It’s not super even all the time. . . . It’s important to put yourself in that situation.”
Santos has made 90.3 percent of his field goals the past two seasons, going 56-of-62.