NEWSLETTER
After a shaky few weeks in the early going, Cairo Santos has turned it on. The Bears place-kicker has made 83 percent of his kicks and is coming off a performance that netted him the NFC’s Special Teams Player of the Week award. And yet, I have to remind myself Santos was originally viewed as Plan B coming into the season. Which has us wondering about what’s the deal with Eddy Piñeiro, who opened the year as Plan A.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much of an update to be shared when Special Teams Coordinator Chris Tabor spoke to the Chicago media on Friday:
Chris Tabor says Eddy Pineiro is still in the rehab process with his injury. Still working with the trainers. Would not say yes or no when asked if he was kicking or not. #Bears
— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) October 23, 2020
Piñeiro has been on Injured Reserve with a groin injury that has been problematic since August. He was eligible to return after Week 3, and at the time, his return would’ve been welcome. Because that’s when Santos was in the midst of his struggles with misses in consecutive games. Since then, Santos has been a money kicker who has connected on 7 of his last 8 kicks.
On one hand, no one is rushing Piñeiro back into the lineup. Then again, a groin injury that wasn’t expected to keep Piñeiro down for long still has him out. And with Kai Forbath getting poached by the Rams, the Bears don’t have a healthy backup plan at the position. So while it looks like Chicago has two kickers it has faith in, only one is good to go on gamely. And when that will change is something no one seems to know.
