Bears take a look at punters for the future

The Chicago Bears don’t have plans to replace veteran punter Brad Maynard before this season ends.

But they did some work to at least find a challenger for the offseason today when the club brought in four punters for a tryout at Halas Hall, according to multiple league sources.

Brent Bowden, a sixth-round draft pick for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year, A.J. Trapasso, T.J. Conley and left-footed Australian football veteran Dan Power went through the tryout.

Maynard, 36, is in his 10th season with the Bears and is in the final year of his contract. The team has not started negotiations with him. Maynard is third in NFL history with 1,250 punts and is one of only two punters to land more than 400 career punts inside the 20-yard line.

He’s averaging only 35.1 net yards this season, one of the lowest averages in the league, but kicking at Soldier Field isn’t easy, particularly in the second half of the season. The Bears have used former Texas punter Richmond McGee as a camp leg the past two summers. He could also be in the picture for a futures deal.

In the tryout, the Bears also used Andrew Pitz, an undrafted long snapper from Penn State.

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Brad Biggs covers the Bears for the Chicago Tribune

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