Eddy Pineiro should not be the Chicago Bears kicker. There are so many reasons this statement is true. The number of obstacles that got in his way over the past five years alone is hard to describe. Everything from ill-timed injuries to football not even being his first sport of choice. The idea that this kid from sunny Miami, Florida would end up holding the kicker job of one of the landmark franchises in professional football in the third-largest city in the U.S.?
Crazy talk.
Yet that is the case. With just two days left before the Green Bay Packers arrive, Pineiro is their guy. So how in the world did it get to this point? Well, that's a bit of a loaded question. One that fans may be surprised by how deep the answer actually goes. It's a journey that began in South Florida with (not so) gentle encouragement from his father, traversed multiple states, encountered larger than life coaches, before entering the lion's den fo arguably the craziest kicking competition in NFL history.
Eddy Pineiro came so close to not even playing football
People don't realize that football wasn't an option coming out of high school for Pineiro. He'd spent most of his four years at Miami Sunset High School playing soccer. At one point he'd even accepted a scholarship to play that sport in college for Florida Atlantic. Unfortunately he didn't do enough to convince coaches he should stay on there. So he was forced to follow his soccer hopes to ASA College in Miami Beach. As time went on it became clear he may have to find another route if he wanted to continue his athletic career.
Thankfully he had two people looking out for him. Jay Flipse, his coach of seven years, and Pineiro's father constantly pushed him to practice kicking field goals. Something he wasn't able to do in high school during his lone season playing football as a senior (only handled kickoffs). These grinding sessions included kicking 100 times from both the right and left legs. Thankfully this preparation proved wise.
In 2015, with his soccer hopes dimming, Pineiro traveled to the University of Alabama where legendary head coach Nick Saban was holding an open kicker tryout. Pineiro brought his best stuff that day and received a scholarship offer. He verbally committed to attend. However, on the way home conversations led to the idea of stopping by at Florida University to try out for them as well.
It was so spur of the moment that Pineiro hadn't rested yet.
He took a nap in the parking lot. Despite less than ideal preparation time, he still nailed all three of his field goal attempts. That was enough for head coach Jim McElwain, who offered him a scholarship. Pineiro was torn though. He'd already committed to the Crimson Tide. Turning down somebody like Saban was hard to do. In the end, being closer to his Miami home was the deciding factor.
“The reason why I chose Florida over Alabama was because I wanted to stay home, and I thought my parents would have a better opportunity to come watch me play.”
The Eddy Pineiro swagger was obvious from the beginning
One of the things that became clear about Pineiro almost right away was his self-confidence. He firmly believed in his own ability. So much so that he felt no sense of pressure when he decided to make his Florida jersey the #15. For those who are unfamiliar, that number had belonged to school legend Tim Tebow just a few years earlier. The same man who'd carried the team to national championship glory.
Some wondered if this kid with barely any high school experience had a right to be so cocky. Then Pineiro went 21-of-25 on field goal attempts as a sophomore. This including a perfect 3-of-3 from 50 yards and beyond. His junior year, he was even better, finishing 17-of-18. His 88.4% accuracy rate was one of the best among the draft-eligible kickers in 2018. It didn't prove enough for teams to take a chance on him though.
Undeterred, Pineiro entered the undrafted market and was lured west to California where he signed on with the Oakland Raiders. Their new head coach Jon Grudne loved guys with swagger, so it seemed like an obvious fit. Over the summer in training camp, it became obvious that the job was all but his by the start of the preseason. Then, in the blink of an eye, things changed.
Injury robbed him of a "10-year plan"
Things were going according to plan. Oakland opened the preseason against Detroit. Pineiro connected on all three of his field goal attempts in the game, furthering his hold on the job. Then the following Wednesday, he felt a tweak in his groin during practice. He didn't play in the following game, or the next one, or the next one. Uncertain of when he'd be healthy, the Raiders took the cautious approach and stashed him on Injured Reserve.
The plan was to have him 100% ready for 2019. As anybody knows though, plans tend to change. A month and a half later, Oakland signed Daniel Carlson off the street to replace the struggling Matthew McCrane, who himself had replaced Pineiro's stand-in Mike Nugent who'd suffered a hip injury. Carlson didn't waste the opportunity, going 16-of-17 to finish the year. Gruden felt he'd seen enough. They'd found their new kicker.
This left Pineiro in limbo. He obviously had no future with the team but was under contract and couldn't leave. Thankfully his reprieve arrived in July was Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace traded a conditional 7th round pick to get him. Afterward, the kicker couldn't help but feel slightly bitter about the experience as Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“They were like: ‘Hey, we’re going to stash you. We’re going to get you ready for next season. You’re going to be here for the next 10 years.
I was happy because they believed in me. And then they traded me.”
Pineiro had no idea what he was stepping into
On the surface, things looked ideal. The Bears had a wide open kicking competition that had already been narrowed down from nine in rookie minicamps to two by their end. Pineiro joined former Pitt starter Chris Blewitt and AAF veteran Elliott Fry as training camp was about to begin. Then Blewitt was swiftly cut, making it a two-man race. Better still, Pineiro would be reunited with Jamie Kohl, the renowned kicking coach whose camps the young kicker had attended in the past.
What Pineiro didn't know was just how deathly serious the Bears were about this competition.
He, like any football follower, saw what happened back in January. Trailing 16-15 with seconds left, all they needed to knock off the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles was a 43-yard field goal. The conditions weren't bad at all. It wasn't freezing and there was little wind to speak of. Cody Parkey, their kicker, was already 3-of-3 on the evening. All he needed was one more to bring it home. Sadly, as had become the case the entire season, he crumbled under the pressure. The kick hit the left upright and then the crossbar before bouncing out.
The infamous "double doink" was born.
That was Parkey's 11th missed kick of the season. The second that cost the Bears a victory. So it was little surprise the team decided to cut him not long after that. Yet Parkey isn't the sole reason Chicago has become so kicker obsessed. It actually started back in 2016 when longtime veteran Robbie Gould was released following a difficult end to 2015. They tried to replace him with veteran Connor Barth. He'd had a great run from 2011 to 2014, making 69-of-77 field goals.
However, his stroke had declined noticeably in 2015. In 26 games with the Bears, he missed 10 field goals and one extra point. Combined with Parkey, that made for 22 missed kicks in a span of three seasons. Needless to say, it's really hard to win games in the NFL that way.
The "exhausting" battle to follow was merciless
Pineiro still had his swagger and self-confidence, but he had no idea what the Bears coaches had in store for him. They measured and charted everything. The detailed coaching involved became legendary. Leg speed? Ball spin? Arc? Everything was graded. There was also the narrowed uprights to increase demand on accuracy, and the famed "August Silence" where he had to kick with everyone on the field not making a sound. Drills that saw teammates punished with pushups if he screwed up a kick.
Matt Nagy and his staff were intent and testing how mentally tough Pineiro and Fry were. The kicker admitted that the entire process was "exhausting." By the end of training camp, the battle remained even. Both had their good moments in Bourbonnais and both had bad. The preseason would indeed be the battleground to decide matters.
It did not start how Pineiro hoped.
In the opener against Carolina, he had a chance to seize control with a 48-yard field goal. Instead, he hooked it left.
Suddenly his status in the competition appeared bleak. Unless he rebounded against in New York the next week, Fry would end up getting the job. That was the general feeling. Lucky for Pineiro, his opponent picked the worst possible time to choke. On his only field goal attempt in MetLife Stadium, Fry missed a 47-yarder. Pineiro hit both of his shorter attempts including one from 41. He could sigh with relief. There was still hope.
The Bears though had seen enough. Fry was released a couple of days later.
Two games stood between Pineiro and redemption
A message was being sent. If you want the job, this is your time to take it. Pineiro knew that. He also knew he was one bad performance from having the Bears seek out somebody else. That was the pressure he felt going into Week 3 in Indianapolis. Pineiro though had been through a lot. From failing at his soccer dreams to watching his job get stolen away in Oakland to the murderous cram school sessions in training camp. Would he really fold after enduring all that?
Nope.
In easily his best performance as a Bear, Pineiro was perfect on all five of his kicks against the Colts. This included a statement 58-yard field goal that tied the franchise record.
Nothing ever comes easy though. The next week in the preseason finale, Pineiro and the city of Chicago momentarily panicked when the kicker badly hooked an extra point attempt early. Thankfully it was just an aberration as he was flawless the rest of the game. Following the final cuts on August 31st, Nagy made it official. Pineiro would indeed be the Bears' kicker for opening night against Green Bay.
Having finally vanquished the demons of the past, the young kicker is free to focus on the future. One where he hopes to show those who gave up on him too soon that they made a tragic, tragic mistake.
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