Chicago Bears: Closing remarks for disappointing 2019 season

6. The Chicago Bears settled at kicker

Eddy Pineiro had a great start in 2019. Pineiro scored the team’s first points of the season. He was over 80% as a kicker but that isn’t great. Pineiro could have cost the Bears a playoff spot. Here’s what I mean.

Pineiro missed a kick against the Chargers that was make-able. That was a game the team should have won 19-17, instead, they lost 17-16. As talked about earlier, the Bears shouldn’t have lost to the Raiders. If they would have beaten the Raiders and the Chargers, the Bears would be the sixth seed in the playoffs at 10-6.

Those two losses prove how much each game means. Those losses were early in the season but ended up costing the Bears a playoff spot. Now, I wouldn’t give up on Pineiro yet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t look.

They won’t waste a draft pick on a kicker which is good. They should look at the free-agent kickers during the offseason though. Matt Nagy messed up the kicking competition during the offseason in 2019. If they add another kicker to the roster, it should just be one, not seven.

Now, Pineiro did make that big kick against the Broncos to win the game. If he misses that, the Bears would have finished 7-9. So yes, he won a game for them and lost a game for them. He also missed two kicks against the Rams and another one against the Chargers.

Kicking is very important and no one knows that like Bears’ fans do. Chances are there won’t be a new kicker in 2020 but it’s something to think about. If it comes down to a kick in a playoff game like it did in 2018, are you confident in Pineiro?