49ers Weigh Kicker Tryouts as Kyle Shanahan’s Patience With Eddy Piñeiro Wears Thin

The San Francisco 49ers head into their bye week with a handful of injured starters to nurse back to health, but the most uncomfortable conversation inside the building may center on the one player who touches the ball only a few times each Sunday.

Eddy Piñeiro, the kicker who arrived as a midseason savior a year ago and was rewarded with a long-term deal this past spring, has suddenly become one of the most unreliable legs in the league, and Kyle Shanahan is no longer bothering to hide his frustration.

The latest miss came in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 29-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, when Piñeiro pushed an extra point that would have kept the game within a single possession after Kyle Juszczyk’s short touchdown catch.

When reporters asked afterward whether the team planned to bring in kickers for a workout during the off week, Shanahan offered nothing resembling a vote of confidence, saying he had not spoken with anyone about it yet and that the staff would probably discuss it on the flight home.

Coming from a coach who has never been shy about moving on from a struggling kicker, that noncommittal answer carried plenty of weight.

It also followed a pointed message Shanahan delivered just six days earlier, when Piñeiro botched a first-quarter extra point in the 23-17 Monday night win over Washington.

Shanahan said bluntly that his kicker had to make those kicks, noting that the miss fortunately did not cost the team but that everyone understood the standard.

With the Commanders driving for a potential go-ahead touchdown in the closing minutes, that missing point loomed far larger than a routine conversion ever should.

Through seven games, Piñeiro has connected on just six of his nine field goal attempts, with all three misses coming from beyond 50 yards, including a 54-yarder that Denver blocked.

He has been even shakier on extra points, converting only 21 of 25, and his seven total misses are among the most in the NFL.

That stands in stark contrast to his 2025 campaign, when he made 28 of 29 field goals to lead the league at 96.6 percent, a performance that convinced the front office to hand him a four-year, $17 million contract in March.

The extra-point issue is not entirely new, either. Even during his near-flawless season on field goals, Piñeiro missed four of his 38 conversion attempts, and that inconsistency has followed him into this year with far less margin for error.

For a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, coughing up free points in one-score games is the kind of slow leak that eventually sinks a season.

San Francisco knows this territory well, having waived Jake Moody after a single shaky outing to open last season before landing Piñeiro in the first place.

Whether the 49ers bring in competition this week or simply ride out the slump, the clock is ticking ahead of their November 8 return against the Las Vegas Raiders, and Piñeiro will need to rediscover his 2025 form quickly to keep his job secure.