The Jets have made their kicker decision. Offseason addition Greg Zuerlein looks to have won the job. The team is waiving Eddy Pineiro on Tuesday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
Pineiro kicked in five Jets games last season, making all eight of his field goal tries and going 9-for-10 on PATs, but the Jets scooped up Zuerlein after the Cowboys cut him this offseason. The veteran kicker is also attached to a slightly bigger contract — one year, $2MM ($1M guaranteed). Though, Pineiro was signed for $1.75M ($750K guaranteed).
Barring another change at the position, Zuerlein will be on track to kick for a third team and begin an 11th season as a franchise’s primary kicker. The strong-legged specialist who earned All-Pro recognition in 2017 and made a 58-yard field goal to send the Rams to Super Bowl LIII a year later struggled in his second Cowboys season. Zuerlein, 34, missed a career-high six extra points in 2021. He made 82.9 percent of his field goal tries in each of his Cowboys campaigns.
Both players were not faring well during the Jets’ offseason program, and Zuerlein’s leash is certainly not as long as it was during his Rams tenure. The Jets have not enjoyed kicking stability for a bit. They used three kickers during both the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Kaare Vedvik not working out in 2019 led to the team using two that year.
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