The San Francisco 49ers have a perfect record through the season's first six weeks, but kicker Eddy Pineiro's stat line is anything but.
After playing the role of savior for the team last season, it seems he has fallen the way of his predecessor, Jake Moody. After Kyle Shanahan's choice words earlier this week, things may get worse before they get better.
"Not much to discuss... He knows he's got to make kicks, and I'm not going to try to teach him how to do that," Shanahan said when asked about the kicker's struggles.
There was a clear hint of frustration in the play caller's words, and it's hard to blame him. After making 28 of 29 field goals last year, he has made just six of nine kicks to start 2026. He's also missed three PATs already as well.
Given that the 49ers have already done this dance with Jake Moody a little over a year ago, there is no telling when Shanahan's patience will officially run out.
49ers' Eddy Pineiro is falling the way of Jake Moody
Pineiro was one of the most consistent kickers in the league last year, but so was Moody in his first season in red and gold. The third-round draft pick made 84% of his kicks as a rookie, including 15 of 16 from within 40 yards.
His sophomore campaign, however, is when the wheels came off. His field goal percentage dropped almost 14.0 percent, and he carried the slump over with him to the beginning of 2025. His release cleared the path for Pineiro to take over. The veteran kicker was able to right the Niners' special teams ship almost immediately, and he kept it upright for the duration of the season.
That is until he started to show signs of a Jake Moody-like decline.
49ers have little patience left for poor kicking after previous fiasco
Pineiro has already matched his season total of missed kicks from last year, making the issue nearly impossible to ignore. His head coach certainly hasn't overlooked it. Pineiro was Shanahan's chosen replacement to shore up the team's kicking struggles, but now it appears the coach is right back where he started.
Therefore, it's completely reasonable to see why the coaching staff would have some grumbling over Eddy Pineiro's struggles. If he proves he is incapable of getting the job done, it will likely result in a bad case of deja vu, where GM John Lynch will be forced to look for a replacement for the replacement.
Surely Kyle Shanahan and company must be over leaving points on the table, and he's right: he can't teach his kicker how to kick better. All he can do is watch while Pineiro attempts to battle his inner demons. If he loses the fight, he may leave the 49ers with no choice but to go in another direction.
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