South Charlotte Today

Eddy Piñeiro, the Panthers kicker, had an unexpected weekend of recognition while spending time with his family in Florida. Piñeiro was visiting his father, Eddy Sr., who recently suffered a heart attack and couldn't travel to Germany to see him make a game-winning kick in overtime. Reflecting on his time at home, Piñeiro said, "Just hung out with the family," adding that his father is recovering well.

While at home, Piñeiro unknowingly achieved a significant milestone. Baltimore's Justin Tucker missed two field goals against the Steelers, dropping his career accuracy mark to 89.348 percent (411-of-460). This put Piñeiro at the top of the list with an 89.381 percent accuracy (101-of-113).

Piñeiro expressed humility about this achievement: "I would definitely rather get it hitting a kick or something, obviously not on somebody else's downfall." He praised Tucker as "the greatest of all time" for maintaining high performance over many kicks.

Despite achieving this distinction due to Tucker's missed attempts, Piñeiro emphasized that he didn't realize it until friends informed him via social media posts. "One of my friends tagged me in a post or something," he recounted.

Panthers' long snapper JJ Jansen mentioned discussing this accomplishment with teammate Johnny Hekker: "Eddy is like a lot of kickers: very competitive and very aware of what's going on around the league."

Piñeiro remains focused on consistency and improvement despite past uncertainties about his career after limited playtime following his first season in Chicago in 2019. Since joining Carolina in 2021, he's maintained an impressive 90.9 percent field goal rate (70-of-77).

Reflecting on his journey and current success, he stated, "I feel like I'm just one kick away from not being in the NFL... But this year has been awesome so far; we've worked very hard to get to this point."

Head coach Dave Canales highlighted Piñeiro's consistency as an example for other players: "Just the consistency; he shows up and does the same thing every day." Canales praised Piñeiro's approach during high-pressure situations such as his game-winning kick in Germany.

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