Eddy Pineiro Well Prepared for Whatever Camp Brings

After the great Chicago Bears kicking hunt, a 23-of-28 rookie year, and COVID-19, a job challenge from rookie Ramiz Ahmed should seem simple for Bears kicker Eddie Pineiro

Eddy Pinerio went through the Chicago Bears' famed nationwide manhunt for a kicker last summer.

Then he went through a rocky ride of a first Bears season, followed by the pandemic.

So competing against one kicker at training camp, Ramiz Ahmed,  might feel like just another day at the office.

Pineiro has hardly had the routine start to a kicker's career in the NFL but believes he's ready to move forward even without an offseason of work at Halas Hall.

"I'm excited to go back and start the process and get ready for the season," Pineiro said Tuesday via Zoom in a call with Chicago media. "I think it's going to be fun. I've been quarantining in the house, I really don't see anybody but my family. It will be cool to see some new faces."

He saw plenty of new faces last year when he came in via trade after the Bears cut down their national manhunt to two other kickers. They had three kickers together for a while, Elliott Fry and Chris Blewitt, and decided eventually to cut Blewitt. Then they kept Pineiro after training camp and preseason.

It was hardly a smooth ride for Pineiro.

He missed five of his first 17 field goals and then made his final 11, but only one of the kicks was longer than 36 yards and it was 46 yards.

On the year, he was 5 of 9 from 40 yards and longer. Besides a game-winning 53-yard field goal in the last seconds against Denver, he missed a 41-yard kick against the Los Angeles Chargers at game's end for a 17-16 defeat.

So even though he knew he was the kicker going forward, he also expected to see someone trying to take his job.

"I haven't gotten to know him," Pineiro said. "We've done a couple of Zoom meetings together. But as far as them signing him, I obviously expected it.

"Everybody has to compete. That's just part of that."

Pineiro showed he could compete last year in the kicking search. Despite the missed kick against the Chargers, Nagy wouldn't have done anything different.

"No. 1 what I would say is I would not change anything in regards to how we did that last year," Nagy said. "We thought it worked out really well, in our benefit. We got feedback that it was just really good."

The Augusta silence, named for the Masters, when the Bears brought a kicker off the sideline to try a field goal during practice in front of quiet teammates, helped to steel Pineiro.

  "Eddy, really, they felt the pressure, which is what we were trying to do," Nagy said. "That's a hard deal to do now, to be out there by yourself, so that part was great, even from our long snappers and holders, they felt it as well.

"So it wasn't just always for the kicker or kickers. So that is a unique position so we were able to create those types of atmospheres."

Pineiro could find Ahmed formidable. He earned some notoriety for a video made from a kicking school competition, as he made a 96-yard, wind-aided kickoff.

Ahmed kicked field goals one season at Nevada, making 15 of 20 and 40 of 44 extra points. In 2017 he had taken part in a student walk-on tryout after the season started and made the team as a designated kickoff man. In his career at Nevada, he had 75 touchbacks on 133 kickoffs.

This shouldn't be the same Pineiro, though.

For one, he's added 8 pounds to 187, through offseason work.

"The biggest thing was gain a little bit of weight, try to get a little bit better in the weight room and stuff like that," Pineiro said. "That was one thing I really focused on this offseason—just weight and getting (stronger) in the weight room."

To keep his kicking sharp, Piniero has been working regularly in the Miami area with punter and place holder Pat O'Donnell at a Moore Park.

"You know, me and Pat see each other two to three times a week, so, I'm lucky enough that we only live an hour away from each other," Pineiro said. "But before every practiced—me and Pat don't just go in and just kick some balls—we kind of have a set game plan. Like, 'OK, we're going to do this. Last-second field goal at the end of practice, or we're going to manipulate the wind or hit the ball this way for it to go this way. Stuff like that."

They're trying to simulate game situations.

The park is relatively wide open and the wind sweeps across, which lets Pineiro prepare for Soldier Field.

"My biggest struggle was going from a windy game right in Chicago and then going and playing in a dome in Detroit," Pineiro said. "Getting focused on the little things was the biggest thing for me.

"That was probably the biggest learning experience, was going from a windy game in 30-mile per hour winds and then playing in a dome. The transition was the biggest things for me. That's what I learned about."

He could experience an all-new problem this year. That's kicking in an empty stadium.

"I don't think I've ever played a game without any fans," he said. "I think that it would be weird because you're so used to running out in the stadium and having people cheer and stuff like that, but I couldn't tell you.

"I don't know. I've never done it before."

Actually he has.

It was called Augusta Silence and Nagy made him go through it last summer.

After that unique competition, the season, and this offseason, Pineiro could be well prepared for anything.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven