Eddy Piñeiro climbed aboard in the nick of time. After Matt Ammendola departed and Alex Kessman was one-and-done, the Jets needed someone to steady their field goal and extra point units. Turns out Piñeiro was just the one for the job.
"I think I was able to come in and help the team out," he told newyorkjets.com's Caroline Hendershot. "Obviously they were going through a kicking situation, so it was fun to come in, make my kicks and keep it positive with the guys."
Piñeiro did miss one placement, an extra point that was blocked against Jacksonville. Other than that, he was right on the Eddy money — which shouldn't surprise his fans who've followed him since his U. of Florida days.
You see, Piñeiro has this weird talent. He kicks better from 50 yards and longer than he does from 49 and shorter. Counting all his game kicks from his two Gators seasons plus 2019 with the Bears and five games with the Jets, he's converted 86% of his field goal tries (61-of-71) from less than 50. But he's converted 100% of his tries from 50-plus (8-of-8).
Piñeiro hit his stride with his two longest kicks this season in the Green & White's last two games — the 51-yarder to end the first half vs. Tampa Bay and the third-quarter 49-yarder to keep the Jets in the season finale at Buffalo.
And that brings us to one last amazing Piñeiro factoid. He converted all eight of his FG tries in Games 13-17. How many kickers in franchise history were perfect on their first eight kicks for the Jets? Only one. Rookie Cary Blanchard replaced veteran Jason Staurovsky in Game 5 of the 1992 season and drilled his first nine tries.
Going 8-for-8 is neat but not necessarily predictive of success. Blanchard missed his last four kicks as a Jet in 1993 — including three trying to propel a frozen chunk of pigskin through the uprights at Buffalo in a 16-14 loss — and was gone. Meanwhile, Nick Folk hit six of his first eight and 82% of his 216 career tries as a Jet, now-broadcaster Jay Feely began 6-of-8 in 2008 and finished 57-of-69 (82.6%) through '09, and Jason Myers went 7-of-8 to start and 33-of-36 overall for the best FG season in Jets history at 91.7% in 2018.
newyorkjets.com
"I think I was able to come in and help the team out," he told newyorkjets.com's Caroline Hendershot. "Obviously they were going through a kicking situation, so it was fun to come in, make my kicks and keep it positive with the guys."
Piñeiro did miss one placement, an extra point that was blocked against Jacksonville. Other than that, he was right on the Eddy money — which shouldn't surprise his fans who've followed him since his U. of Florida days.
You see, Piñeiro has this weird talent. He kicks better from 50 yards and longer than he does from 49 and shorter. Counting all his game kicks from his two Gators seasons plus 2019 with the Bears and five games with the Jets, he's converted 86% of his field goal tries (61-of-71) from less than 50. But he's converted 100% of his tries from 50-plus (8-of-8).
Piñeiro hit his stride with his two longest kicks this season in the Green & White's last two games — the 51-yarder to end the first half vs. Tampa Bay and the third-quarter 49-yarder to keep the Jets in the season finale at Buffalo.
And that brings us to one last amazing Piñeiro factoid. He converted all eight of his FG tries in Games 13-17. How many kickers in franchise history were perfect on their first eight kicks for the Jets? Only one. Rookie Cary Blanchard replaced veteran Jason Staurovsky in Game 5 of the 1992 season and drilled his first nine tries.
Going 8-for-8 is neat but not necessarily predictive of success. Blanchard missed his last four kicks as a Jet in 1993 — including three trying to propel a frozen chunk of pigskin through the uprights at Buffalo in a 16-14 loss — and was gone. Meanwhile, Nick Folk hit six of his first eight and 82% of his 216 career tries as a Jet, now-broadcaster Jay Feely began 6-of-8 in 2008 and finished 57-of-69 (82.6%) through '09, and Jason Myers went 7-of-8 to start and 33-of-36 overall for the best FG season in Jets history at 91.7% in 2018.
newyorkjets.com
