Robbie Gould is the, pardon the pun, gold standard of Chicago Bears kicking. No kicker had a greater accuracy rate in their careers with the team than him. There’s a reason so many fans were eager for the team to bring him back when the veteran kicker declared his desire to be traded by San Francisco. He didn’t get that good by simply being talented. He also had a remarkable degree of self-confidence. A legitimate swagger about him. People who saw it would likely see the same in Eddy Pineiro.
Earl Bennett said in one of his latest blog entries on what it was like to play with Gould. Contrary to the public image of just being a kicker, the guy wasn’t afraid to carry himself with a degree of importance.
“Robbie is very confident and lets you know it. He’s the guy that busts everyone balls during the preseason and takes jabs at guys who do not perform well, especially rookies.”
It would seem Pineiro, a second-year kicker whom the Bears traded for from Oakland has a similar personality. Already he stated last week that he feels no pressure from the fact that Chicago dealt for him. Why? He believes the Raiders gave him away “for pennies.” Clearly, the young man doesn’t lack confidence, and more of that showed at Family Fest down at Soldier Field on Saturday.
Eddy Pineiro staked the strongest claim yet to Bears kicker job
This marked the first time both Pineiro and Elliott Fry would kick in the Bears’ home stadium. Given how much Cody Parkey struggled there (7 of his 11 misses were there), everybody wanted to see how the two would operate in the place they’d need to be good. Each got extensive work in front of over 18,000 people. Fry connected on 7-of-9 kicks with his misses being from 48 and 60. Not bad.
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Pineiro though was the clear winner of the evening. He went a perfect 12-of-12 including a 60-yarder. That broke Gould’s Family Fest record of 10-of-10 set back in 2016. Now some will say the Bears cut Gould a month later so this doesn’t really matter. Except maybe it does. After leaving Chicago, he eventually signed with the New York Giants and went a perfect 10-of-10 on field goals during that season.
Reporters saw some of that swag after practice. When one brought up the fact that head coach Matt Nagy said he and Fry struggled in OTAs, Pineiro bristled slightly.
“I think we were doing pretty good in OTAs too. I think we did well in OTAs, I think we’re doing good now. We didn’t do that bad in OTAs.”
That’s a man who believes strongly in what he can do. That kind of mentality is critical to success at the NFL level. Gould proved that for years in Chicago. It will be interesting to see if it sustains Pineiro through this grueling battle.
