With the season essentially over, the Bears need analyze their roster very carefully. Personally, I am on the fence with this one, but should the Bears cut Eddy Pineiro now or keep giving him opportunities to grow?
The Chicago Bears were able to sneak out of Soldier Field with a victory over the New York Giants on Sunday. This was despite the offense trying to give the game away at times by not making the most of their red zone opportunities. This was despite the defense allowing yet another late touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. This was also despite Eddy Pineiro missing an extra point.
Yep, that’s right, Eddy Pineiro missed yet another kick. Granted this was not your normal extra point kick, the kick was still easily makeable. After an offensive pass interference call by Allen Robinson on the two-point conversion attempt, the extra point attempt was now a 48-yarder. This is a kick most kickers in the NFL should be making on a regular basis.
Pineiro is currently 24th in the NFL in terms of kicking field goal percentage. He has a 73.7 percent success rate. That number jumped up after yesterday’s game where he made his two field-goal attempts. We need to be careful giving him much credit on those two kicks though. The longest field goal attempt he made yesterday was from 26 yards out.
Pineiro is now 14 of 19 on the season. He is 18 of 20 on his extra-point attempts. Combined, that would be 32 of 39 and an 82.1 percent success rate. Although this sounds much better, that number is still not good enough.
That said, I should point out that Pineiro has better numbers than Robbie Gould this season. Gould has been dealing with a strained quadriceps and missed the last three games. However, prior to that injury, he had really been struggling this year. Over the course of the season, Gould has only made 13 of his 20 field goals despite being a perfect 26 for 26 on extra-point attempts.
Remember the offseason when we were all screaming for Ryan Pace to bring Gould back by trading for him? With a 65 percent success rate this year, it seems Pace made the right call letting Gould stay in San Francisco. The success or struggles of Robbie Gould have nothing to do with the Bears’ current kicking situation though. This brings me back to the original point.
Should the Bears continue to give Eddy Pineiro a chance or should be released before the end of the season? What about at the end of the season? We all wanted Cody Parkey cut last year, yet Parkey finished the season with a 76.7 field goal percentage. Combined with his extra-point attempts, he finished with an 86.7 percent success rate.
One glaring difference between the two was their salary, but the Bears are essentially paying Parkey this year anyway. Who by the way, was a perfect 3 for 3 in limited action for the Tennessee Titans this year. He made two from beyond 40 yards and a long of 51 yards. His one extra point miss was doinked off the upright though and his legacy lived on despite his numbers not being awful.
Since the season is essentially over, I am all for the Bears riding out the rest of the year to see how Pineiro finishes the season. That said, if he cannot improve drastically between now and the end of December, he needs to go before the start of the 2020 season.