Who Should I Start? Matt Prater or Eddy Piñeiro

Tuesday, October 27, 9:41 AM

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch said on KNBR Radio on Tuesday that the team plans to stick with struggling kicker Eddy Pineiro when they come out of their Week 8 bye. "We don't have a kicker tryout. We have a lot of belief in Eddie. He has had a tough run early this year, but we extended Eddie for his body of work with us but then throughout the history of his career. He's going through a rough patch right now. We have belief in Eddie, and we're going to ride with him," Lynch said. Pineiro did not attempt a field goal in the team's first loss of the season on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, but he missed one of his three extra-point tries and has missed three of his nine field-goal attempts through seven weeks so far in the 2026 season. The veteran placekicker has attempted a league-high 25 extra points, but he has missed four of them. For now, the 49ers will keep their faith in the 31-year-old, who had a league-high 96.6% success rate on field goals in 2025 in his first year with the Niners. Pineiro will attempt to get things straightened out when the team faces the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 9 after their Week 8 bye.