The San Francisco 49ers shelled out up to $17 million to finally make their longstanding kicker dilemma finally go away, giving that four-year deal to veteran Eddy Piñeiro after he came aboard to help end the failed Jake Moody saga.
For those fans who regularly chewed their fingernails whenever Moody was out for a kick, Piñeiro had to be the ultimate "breath of fresh air," delivering to the extent of an NFL-best 96.6 field-goal percentage in 2025, albeit missing four of his 38 extra-point attempts.
In contrast to Moody, the Niners will happily take that.
Now with job security, the soon-to-be 31-year-old Piñeiro no longer has the luxury of being a comp to the Moody failure. Securing that kind of cash means he'll ultimately need to deliver with consistency.
In light of San Francisco's other changes on both sides of the ball amid its Super Bowl window, said consistency will be crucial to head coach Kyle Shanahan's playoff aspirations.
49ers again need Eddy Piñeiro to be just as clutch as he was in 2025
The aforementioned field-goal percentage was a career-best for Piñeiro, too, meaning it wouldn't be a shock to see a regression in 2026, although a slight dip would be beyond acceptable at this point.
Consider this: Of the 49ers' 437 points scored a season ago, the specialist accounted for 118 of them. That's 27 percent of Shanahan's scoring—who says kickers aren't important?
The Niners overhauled their receiving corps during the offseason, adding Mike Evans, Christian Kirk and rookie De'Zhaun Stribling, while bidding farewell to Jauan Jennings and preparing for life after the embattled Brandon Aiyuk. While Shanahan is certainly hoping for more touchdowns than field-goal tries this season, the inevitability of stalled-out drives means Piñeiro could be the difference between winning those one-score games and losing them.
Given the uber-competitive nature of the NFC West right now, being on the right side of that equation will go a long way.
Fortunately, there's little reason to assume Piñeiro will suffer any sort of major regression despite the increased pressure amid a hefty contract.
Should the kicker merely be close to last year's figures, that cash will appear to be well-spent.
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