Bears End Kicking Competition Early, Waive Kicker

Apparently, Eddy Pineiro was a shoo-in for the kicking job in Chicago. The Bears waived Pineiro’s only competitor Tuesday afternoon, releasing kicker Ramiz Ahmed, per the team’s PR account on Twitter.

Ahmed was a walk on after he transferred to Nevada in 2017, and he earned the starting job at kicker a year later as a senior. The Bears signed Ahmed this spring to compete with Pineiro, but the competition must not have been that close.

It’s likely Pineiro was better from long distances than Ahmed. His year as a starter at Nevada, Ahmed made 94 percent of his field goal attempts under 40 yards, but he was just 1-of-4 on kicks 50 yards or more, which won’t cut it in the Windy City.

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Eddy Pineiro Must Have Impressed This Offseason…

Pineiro had a season filled with ups and downs during his first year with the Bears in 2019. He was money from 50+ yards, going 2-2, and he was equally good on field goals up to 39 yards, but it was the 40-49 yard range where he struggled. He hit just three of his seven attempts from 40-49 yards last year, and he’ll need to be better there.

Pineiro also struggled a bit with the wind and elements at Soldier Field, so he worked with Bears’ punter Pat O’Donnell this offseason in Florida, trying to master kicking into gusty winds. Pineiro said recently that it may have been his biggest struggle last year.

“That was probably the biggest learning experience going from a windy game, 30 mile per hour wind and then you’re going to go play in a dome where there’s no wind. The transition I think was the biggest thing for me. I think that’s what I learned this year,” he said.

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Pineiro Also Added Some Weight This Offseason

Bears’ special teams coach Chris Tabor said last week that the team had asked Pineiro to add a little muscle this offseason, and he was happy when he saw that Pineiro had put the work in.

“You’re looking at a bigger, stronger Eddy Pineiro,” Tabor said about his kicker via Zoom last week. “I was very impressed. He has put on the weight that we asked. He actually decreased his body fat and you can tell he is much stronger. When we went out and kicked, the ball is jumping off his foot really well.”

Pineiro was on 23-of-28 field goals (that’s 82.1 percent) and 27-29 on extra point attempts last season, and all of his arrows are currently pointing up. Still, he’s a young kicker who will have to play well, or the Bears will very likely bring in a veteran or two in off the street to compete with him yet again.

“He knows that he has to produce,” Tabor said about Pineiro. “I know that he will because he’s just that type of guy. I know he’s done it. He had an opportunity where he didn’t get it done. Those things eat at him. But the good thing is he’s been in those situations and we’ve seen him come through. Now we want to see him take the next step.”

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