Eddy Piñeiro will kick on Sunday, and there is nobody behind him
He has missed all three practices this week with an illness, and Matt Maiocco reported on Saturday afternoon that he will play anyway. San Francisco auditioned Younghoe Koo and Greg Joseph and kept neither. The club takes one kicker into its home opener.
Eddy Piñeiro will kick against Miami on Sunday. Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reported it on Saturday afternoon, and Mike Masala at Niners Wire and Marc Adams at 49ers Webzone both carried it.
Piñeiro missed all three of the practices San Francisco has reported this week. Kyle Shanahan, asked about him after Friday's session: "He's missed Wednesday, Thursday, and today. So, I don't know if it (the illness) came on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, but he's missed all week because of it." That is David Bonilla's rendering at 49ers Webzone, filed Friday afternoon.
San Francisco listed him as questionable on its final Week 2 injury report, filed after Friday's practice. Questionable is where the club left him. The club has not said he will play. The reporting has.
San Francisco spent Saturday looking at other kickers and hired none of them. Younghoe Koo and Greg Joseph both worked out for the club, per Maiocco. Neither was signed, per Adams. The club's own roster page, counted table by table at 2:57pm Saturday, carries one kicker across all four of its lists: Piñeiro, on the active roster. None on the practice squad, none on injured reserve, none on reserve/physically unable to perform.
That is the number Shanahan said on Friday the club was about to change. The plan Bonilla reported was a practice-squad signing on Saturday, in case Piñeiro could not play. Asked who it would be, Shanahan did not know, and said two men were under consideration. Two men worked out. Neither is under contract.
The transaction the club did file#
It had nothing to do with kicking. At 1:59pm the 49ers announced they had promoted defensive lineman Ogbo Okoronkwo to the active roster and placed rookie receiver De'Zhaun Stribling on injured reserve. The release gives the order of operations in the club's own words: "In order to make room on the roster, the team placed WR De'Zhaun Stribling on the Injured Reserve List."
Okoronkwo has been in the building since August 31, which is the date the release gives for his practice-squad signing. He was elevated for the Week 1 game on September 10 and played 18 of San Francisco's 61 defensive snaps in Melbourne, 30 percent, off the official game book, then reverted when the final whistle went. A promotion ends that cycle. A signed player does not revert on Sunday night and has no elevation budget to spend, which matters on a defensive line that has lost Alfred Collins and Sam Okuayinonu to injured reserve and Mykel Williams to the physically unable to perform list. The club's release credits Okoronkwo with 82 games, 13 starts and 17.0 sacks across four other teams and this one.
Stribling's placement had been expected since Wednesday, when Shanahan put his recovery at close to ten weeks after ankle surgery. He was the only San Francisco player carrying an Out designation on the final Week 2 injury report. The paperwork arrived three days after the operation. The club's release records exactly one thing about his season: he played in the Week 1 game.
What the man who is kicking did in Melbourne#
Off the official game book, which is the record rather than a write-up. Piñeiro made two field goals from three, good from 20 in the first quarter and good from 56 in the fourth. The miss was a 52-yarder that the book describes as "No Good, Hit Right Upright." He made all three extra points. He kicked off six times, three of them 65 yards, one of those into the end zone for a touchback. Nine of San Francisco's 27 points were his.
He played 12 of the 20 special-teams snaps in that game, 60 percent. Jon Weeks centred all six of his placements and Corliss Waitman held all six, and they played eight snaps each. Neither is on the injury report.
The league also fined two 49ers on Saturday for plays in that game. Kyle Juszczyk was fined $20,033 for unnecessary roughness, illegal use of the helmet, on San Francisco's first play of the second half. Jake Tonges was fined $9,266 for a leg whip, on what Maiocco identifies as the block where Tonges hurt the knee that ended his season. Both figures are Maiocco's, carried by Adams. Tonges has been on injured reserve since September 16, so the second fine changes nothing but his bank balance.
San Francisco's active roster is full at 53. Exactly one of the 53 kicks.
