Chicago Bears: What Eddy Pineiro move really means

The Chicago Bears may have tipped their hand with the Eddy Pineiro trade.

Some of the older Chicago Bears fans might remember a show called “Eight is Enough.” The sitcom centered around a family consisting of eight strong-willed, independent children and the trials and tribulations of raising them into adulthood.

The Bears rookie mini-camp, in some ways, is reminiscent of this series. The team brought in eight strong-legged kickers to compete for a starting job over the course of a weekend in which we all watched the various trials and tribulations.

However, they are fundamentally different in one key regard. For the Bears, eight clearly isn’t enough. Earlier this week, Ryan Pace dipped down into his minor league club  — the Oakland Raiders — and acquired kicker Eddy Pineiro for a seventh-round pick.

Pineiro was very successful and accurate in college at the Univesity of Florida, but the Raiders already have Daniel Carlson, so Pineiro was expendable.

The former Gator once famously blasted an 81-yard field goal in pads, boasting the kind of strong leg that Pace covets and that’s necessary for the conditions a kicker will face at Soldier Field.

But what does the move tell us, beyond the fact that the team now has a third kicker on the roster?

First, it sends a clear message that Chris Blewitt and Elliott Fry likely aren’t the answer. Look, if Pace, Matt Nagy, and Chris Tabor were confident either of those two could be the kicker next year, they would not have gone out and traded for Pineiro. If they felt that had two competent kickers on the roster, they would have let them duke it out in mini-camp and the preseason and see who comes out victorious.

Except they didn’t do that. They went out and acquired another kicker — again because they aren’t satisfied with what’s on the roster. So for those fans that are either Team Blewitt or Team Fry, you may be disappointed soon. For that matter, even if you’re Team Pineiro, you may not want to go out and get that customer jersey just yet.

For all the due diligence the Bears have already done, and for all the confidence they’ve exuded, they do not give off the impression that they think they have solved their kicking problem. So buckle up, because next year’s kicker may not even be on the roster.