No doubt plenty of people are laughing at the Chicago Bears at this point. They tried out eight kickers in minicamps this past weekend. After letting six of them walk, it was felt they may have narrowed their choices down to two with Chris Blewitt and Elliot Fry. Turns out even they aren't in the team's good graces as GM Ryan Pace traded for veteran Eddy Pineiro.
The former undrafted free agent out of Florida was on the fast track to starting for the Oakland Raiders last year. Unfortunately, an ill-timed groin injury knocked him out for the season. This paved the way for Daniel Carlson to gain the starting job. One in which he did well, going 17-of-21 in 2018. This left Pineiro in a state of limbo.
Seeing an opportunity, the Bear sent a conditional 7th round pick in 2021 to get him. A condition that requires him to be on the active roster for five games. In other words, if Pineiro loses the competition to come then the Bears can simply cut him and keep the pick. So the only thing left is learning about who exactly this team traded for.
Here are some key facts worth noting.
Eddy Pineiro hasn't missed a field goal since September of 2017
Consistency is one of the biggest selling points in the NFL for a kicker. It's also something that has eluded the Bears for a long time now. Robbie Gould lost his by the end of 2015. Conor Barth was almost useless beyond 40 yards and Cody Parkey was useless in general. One thing that Pineiro has going for him is he hasn't missed a kick in two years.
His last miss came on September 2nd of 2017 against Michigan. From that point on including the preseason last year, he is a perfect 20-of-20 on all his field goal attempts. Granted kicking in sunny Florida and California is different from gusty Chicago, but it's still impressive.
He was compared to Bill Gramatica
Head coach Matt Nagy lambasted Bears tryout kicker Casey Bednarski for his backflip celebration after winning the final contest of minicamps. This was due to a fear of injury. He referenced former Arizona Cardinals kicker Bill Gramatica as an example. Gramatica famously celebrated after nailing a kick against the New York Giants in 2001, only to tear his ACL.
How ironic then that Lance Zierlein of NFL.com compared Pineiro to Gramatica back in 2018. To be fair, the guy was actually a good kicker. While injury shortened his career, he converted 35 of 42 field goal attempts from 49 yards and in. A respectable 83.33% accuracy rate.
His actual football experience in rather limited
When it comes to kicking a ball, Pineiro is plenty seasoned. However, when it comes to playing the position of kicker in American football? That's another story. He was primarily a soccer player in his early years and didn't get involved with football until his senior year of high school. When he started college at ASA in Miami Beach, he didn't play football.
Notice for him only arrived after he excelled in several kicking camps. He was recruited by some of the top schools in the country including Alabama before sticking close to home at Florida. Even after that, he only played two years for the Gators. So while his kicking prowess is good, he is still raw in other aspects of the position.
Jon Gruden is actually an excellent judge of kicking talent
People give Gruden a lot of grief for his drafting prowess, but one thing has actually been clear during his career as a head coach. He's a pretty good judge of talent when it comes to kickers. It started back in 2000 when he signed off on the Raiders using their 1st round pick to get big lefty Sebastian Janikowski. He would hold that job for the next 17 years.
After inheriting Martin Gramatica from 2002 to 2004 when he arrived in Tampa Bay, Gruden had to replace him in 2005. His final choice ended up being a young man named Matt Bryant. He would go on to have a higher accuracy rate than Gramatica and eventually became a Pro Bowler.
Gruden was a big fan of Pineiro last year.
"We felt Eddy was so good we were going to draft him in the 7th round. That’s how much we thought of this kid. We paid a lot of money to him to get him as an undrafted free agent. And he and Tavecchio are going to have a great battle in training camp.”
In this case, it's okay to take what Gruden says with a degree of weight. His track record proves that.
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