Eddy Pineiro moves one step closer to a New York Jets room
After going through some treacherous times at the position, the New York Jets enjoyed a short stint of kicking stability through the right leg of Eddy Pineiro near the end of the 2021 season.
Pineiro is a restricted free agent this offseason. The Jets have elected to extend him a tender offer for one year at $2.433 million, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Jets tendering RFA kicker Eddy Pineiro for one year at $2.433 million, per @DrewJRosenhaus.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2022
Pineiro responded to the news on Twitter, expressing his thankfulness for the opportunity.
Thank you God for this opportunity 🙏🏻 https://t.co/SdDyqZPCWh
— Eddy Piñeiro (@EddyPineiro) March 16, 2022
New York has used a right-of-first-refusal tender on Pineiro. This means that Pineiro can still negotiate contracts with other teams but the Jets have the right to match any offer that he agrees to.
However, if Pineiro signs elsewhere and the Jets decline to match the offer, they will not receive any draft compensation, contrary to if they used a more expensive tender on him (original-round, second-round, or first-round).
Most likely, though, Pineiro will stick around with the Jets on the tender amount.
The Jets’ decision to tender Pineiro is a fairly strong sign of confidence. A cap hit of $2.433 million currently projects to be the 18th-largest among kickers in 2022. It’s no small number.
New York could have easily declined to tender Pineiro and allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent, aiming to sign him on a cheaper deal, but the Jets instead decided to make their best effort to keep him around.
Pineiro played five games with the Jets last season and made all eight of his field goal attempts. He went 9-for-10 on extra points.
Throughout his short three-year career, Pineiro owns a field goal percentage of 86.1%, making 31 of 36 attempts. His percentage ranks 10th-best out of 39 qualified kickers since 2019.
The Jets also have Matt Ammendola under contract at the kicker position. Ammendola signed a reserve/future deal with New York.
