When the Bears traded for Eddy Piñeiro in May, they not only acquired a kicker, they got a football player.
“You know there’s going to be a little bit of pain there, but there’s nothing structurally wrong,” Bears special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said Thursday at Halas Hall. “There’s a lot of players out there playing through pain and that’s no different.”
The Bears are continuing to nurse Piñeiro through a knee injury he suffered last week and remain hopeful he will be able to kick Sunday against the Vikings at Soldier Field.
“I mean, he played last week, so …” Tabor said, an indication that Piñeiro is on target to kick against the Vikings even if he’s not 100 percent.
Bears coach Matt Nagy defers to Tabor on Piñeiro’s availability and Tabor sounded confident that Piñeiro can work through the knee issue without aggravating it. Piñeiro suffered the injury in the weight room last Friday and made 1-of-2 field goal attempts and 4-of-4 PATs in a 31-15 victory over the Redskins. Piñeiro hit from 38 yards and was wide right from 44.
“Real proud of him,” Tabor said. “I think that’s another step in the right process. We’ve been checking off boxes — and trust me, there’s a lot more boxes to check off, especially as the weather turns here. But that’s a good sign.”
Piñeiro was at practice Thursday but did not attempt a field goal in the portion of practice that was open to the media. But Tabor didn’t think it was a big deal that Piñeiro was not practicing much if at all this week. The Bears are on a short week following the Monday night game against the Redskins.
“Normally … he’s going to hit a couple of times a week,” Tabor said. “I looked at it this way: He kicked Monday. We are going to go to work [Friday] and do our deal. To me, he’s on a normal schedule.”
Punter Pat O’Donnell handled Piñeiro’s kickoff duties and had three touchbacks and three others returned — one for 45 yards. He was effective enough to do it again if needed.
“I was pleased with Pat,” Tabor said. “We need to do a better job covering for him, that’s for sure.”
The Bears are hoping that easing Piñeiro’s workload will allow the injury to heal without cost. So far, so good as the missed field goal was a non-factor against the Redskins — the Bears were leading 28-3 in the third quarter.
“I’ve had it where a guy got hurt on a Friday and we got a new kicker and the first time I saw the snap, hold and kick was in pre-game,” Tabor said. “To be honest, this was not a crisis to me.”
But Sunday’s game could be a different story. It’s a key divisional game — as close to a must-win as you can get this early in the season after the Bears already lost at home to the Packers in the opener. The Vikings are a significant step up from the Redskins. And it’s at Soldier Field, where the conditions can always be challenging. If Piñeiro can’t kick from 50-plus, that might be a problem.
Piñeiro will not kick at Soldier Field prior to Sunday’s game — more because of expected weather issues Friday, Tabor said.
At this point, just getting Piñeiro to Sunday is the priority. The Bears are hopeful he can gut it out from there. That’s what football players do.
