The San Francisco 49ers‘ kicking game is in flux after Eddy Piñeiro’s hamstring injury, so they made a move to address that uncertainty.
The Niners signed veteran Matt Gay to their practice squad Wednesday after Piñeiro’s leg injury cropped up during their win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
In the corresponding roster move, the Niners dropped wide receiver Russell Gage from their practice squad. Gage played 28 snaps but did not have a reception in San Francisco’s regular-season opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
The 49ers (7-4), of course, host the Carolina Panthers (6-5) in a key showdown between NFC playoff hopefuls Monday night at Levi’s Stadium.
Matt Gay Was Cut By The Washington Commanders
As veteran kickers are wont to do, Gay has bounced around between teams but was a member of the Washington Commanders as recently as Sunday.
Gay was dropped by Washington after he missed two long field goals in its 16-13 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins in Madrid, Spain in Week 11. Gay hit field goals of 26 yards and 30 yards but missed a 51-yarder and pushed a potential game-winning field goal from 56 yards wide right in the fourth quarter.
Gay is 22 for 22 on extra points, and 13 for 19 on field goals this year, with all six of his misses coming from 50-plus yards. Still, his missed long kicks have been crucial ones, since he missed a 50-yard kick in the second quarter of Washington’s one-point loss to the Chicago Bears that set its current five-game losing streak in motion.
Still, Gay’s 68.4 field-goal-made percentage ranks 36th among 38 NFL kickers this season. In an era defined by made kicks from deep, he is just 32 for 54 (59.3%) on field goals of 50-plus yards over his seven-season NFL career with the Commanders, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Matt Gay Is Likely To Kick Monday Against The Panthers
Piñeiro sustained a Grade 1 hamstring injury in the third quarter of San Francisco’s win according to coach Kyle Shanahan, which is why the 49ers were in the market for a kicker in the first place.
The injury was serious enough to force San Francisco to go for two on after Christian McCaffrey’s fourth-quarter touchdown that put it ahead 41-22.
Shanahan said Piñeiro is week to week, which means the kicking game is now in Gay’s hands for the foreseeable future. Piñeiro has made 49ers fans forget about the failed Jake Moody experiment, since Piñeiro is 22 for 22 on field goals and 6 for 6 on kicks of at least 50 yards this season.
Still, Piñeiro was not the Niners’ kicking savior. He is just 18 for 22 on extra points this season — his 81.8 percent extra-point rate is the worst of 37 qualifying kickers this season — and missed two PATs against the Cardinals on Sunday. He was just 4 of 7 on PATs over the past two weeks.
So fortunately, the 49ers have a deadly accurate kicker from inside of 50 yards to take his place. Gay has missed just three extra points in his past six seasons and boasts a 92.4 made-field-goals percentage from 49 and in over his seven-season NFL career.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post 49ers Sign New Kicker, Release WR After Eddie Pineiro Injury News appeared first on Heavy Sports.