A year ago, the kicking position was the Achilles heel for the San Francisco 49ers. Jake Moody may have made a game-winner in the team’s preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders, but no one was sold on his future as a Niner.
Sure enough, he only lasted one week into the regular season, as the Niners cut him following a poor Week 1 performance against the Seattle Seahawks.
Fast forward a year, and things could not be any more different. The Niners signed Eddy Piñeiro to replace Moody, and he was excellent. They signed him to an extension in the offseason, and he scored all 18 of the team’s points on Thursday against the Raiders, even nailing a 58-yarder.
He’s been an absolute godsend for a team that relies on special teams stability. Yet, there is still one part of his game that needs to be cleaned up.
Eddy Piñeiro's room for improvement has nothing to do with field goals
Far too often in the preseason, Piñeiro has kicked the ball into the end zone for touchbacks on kickoffs. While that used to be encouraged from kickers, the opposing team now gets great starting field position at the 35-yard line if a ball is kicked past the hash marks.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan even talked about how upset he was with Piñeiro after the start of Thursday’s game. The kicker opted to defer, even though his head coach prefers to receive during the preseason. Not only that, but Piñeiro proceeded to kick the ball into the end zone, which made Shanahan even angrier.
Last season, Piñeiro kicked the ball off to opponents 79 times. Of those, 16 were touchbacks, which was not terrible compared to other kickers in the NFL. But he can certainly get that number lower.
In prior years, the 49ers were not strong enough on special teams to get cute and angle kickoffs in an attempt to gain field-position advantage. However, the special teams unit took a big step forward under Brant Boyer last year, and the squad feels confident that it can maintain its supremacy in 2026.
Obviously, what matters most is that Piñeiro continues his reliable place-kicking ways, but if he can clean things up on kickoffs, it would go a long way. In a game won by small margins, the Niners need to exploit every advantage they can.
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