Bears Kicker Eddy Pineiro Suffering from a Groin Injury

Bears coach Matt Nagy wanted another kicker on the roster anyway due to COVID-19 and the chances of losing his kicker but now a groin injury to Eddy Pineiro makes signing Cairo Santos important

The signing of kicker Cairo Santos involves more than merely bringing in kicking competition for Eddy Pineiro.

Bears coach Matt Nagy on Sunday revealed Pineiro is suffering from a groin injury.

"I had a good conversation with him yesterday afternoon and he does have a little bit of a groin (injury) that he's dealing with right now," Nagy said. "I guess maybe to a fault of mine, I don't like to make a big deal out of it, but I guess maybe I should. So Cairo coming in, I feel really good with him coming in here.

"Hopefully, with Eddy, if we would have went full-go today, go out there and kick. But it's just, again, being transparent, that’s where that's at with him."

In 2018, Pineiro was a rookie with the Oakland Raiders and had to go on injured reserve in preseason with a groin injury. He was lost for the season.

Nagy called signing a second kicker a part of their general contingency plan due to the pandemic. However, at this point it would appear the insurance they signed up for could be used for another reason.

"I'm not saying specifically Cairo, but ... we need to have another kicker on this roster," Nagy said. "It's just, that position, knowing kind of where the COVID testing is right now, we all feel it's very important that you have somebody that can come in if something was to happen to Eddy."

Santos kicked three-plus seasons for the Kansas City Chiefs when Nagy was on coach Andy Reid's staff there, and actually was on the Bears roster in 2017 for two games, going 1-for-2 then on field goals.

For his career, the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Santos has made 108 of 134 field goals (80.6%). He has kicked for five teams in a six-year career.

"In regards to Cairo, I'm excited to get him in here and now we feel more confident with that, in that situation," Nagy said.

Pineiro made 82.1% last year and fought his way through a knee injury in the early season.

The Bears had former Nevada kicker Ramiz Ahmed on the roster to start camp but he was quickly cut.

On Saturday, Nagy had been asked about why Pineiro wasn't out kicking more at practices and he said then the plan was to get their kicker more involved shortly.

"When that question was asked yesterday at the end, I hadn't really talked to, had a one-on-one conversation with Eddy in regards to his (groin injury) situation," Nagy said. "So I wanted to be able to answer it better than not give you an answer I didn't really know a whole lot about."

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