Eddy Pineiro wasn’t perfect last season. He had some ugly moments midway through 2019 for the Chicago Bears. Still, he managed to finish the year strong. Enough to where it seems like the third-year kicker is a heavy favorite to keep his job another season. Word is he’s putting in lots of work this offseason. He’s added almost 10 lbs of muscle which should help him with the tough weather conditions of Chicago.
The team has stated they still believe in him. Even so, it’s clear they aren’t about to hand him the job either when they signed free agent Ramiz Ahmed. The young kicker played his college ball at Nevada and has worked constantly in kicking camps since then. Bears special teams coordinator Chris Tabor first took notice of him last spring and apparently was intrigued by what he saw.
Then he saw notable improvement a couple of months ago. So Ahmed was signed.
Tabor keeps a notebook on all his kicker workouts. His workout with Ahmed was last spring, and he wrote that the former Nevada walk-on was “a guy I should track.”
Tabor: “He went out to Gary Zauner’s free agent camp. Basically every team goes out there to watch that. I saw him there, and he was really striking the ball really well. It’s out in Arizona, so you have to kind of take that stuff into consideration, but just the ball flight, and you could tell he cleaned some things up technically from the last spring. So I actually saw some growth, and just thought this is a guy who deserves an opportunity…”
Eddy Pineiro has the lead but he best not get comfortable
The situation is straightforward enough. Pineiro has the edge going into training camp. He earned that much. If he keeps things steady, that is unlikely to change by September. That said, Ahmed is not only competition but also insurance. A reminder that the coaches are still watching. He has a long way to go before he completely earns their trust with such an important job.
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If he really starts to get erratic in camp or the preseason, Tabor may urge Nagy to make a change. It may seem crazy to go with a young kicker with zero NFL experience. At the same time though, jobs on this team are earned. Not given. Pineiro has talent but there were enough moments last season to keep cautious about his status.
Will Ahmed upset him? Unlikely, but it’s notable that the Bears do like him a bit more than some think.
