The Panthers were on their off week this week, so kicker Eddy Piñeiro went to Florida to visit with his father, Eddy Sr., who recently had a heart attack.
While he was away, Piñeiro became the NFL’s all-time most accurate kicker.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker missed two field goals in Sunday’s loss to the Steelers, dropping his career accuracy to 89.348 percent (411-of-460). Piñeiro has a career mark of 89.381 percent (101-of-113).
“I would definitely rather get it hitting a kick or something, obviously not on somebody else’s downfall,” Piñeiro said, via Darin Gantt of the team website. “But at the end of the day, Justin Tucker is the greatest of all time. From the amount of kicks that he’s kicked and I’ve kicked, he’s kicked four times the amount of kicks that I’ve kicked. And to stay at that level, him being a seven-time Pro Bowler, I mean, there’s no question: He’s the greatest of all time.”
Tucker has made 61-of-92 kicks of 50 yards or longer in his career. Piñeiro has attempted only 13 such kicks, making 11.
Still, it’s Piñeiro who currently is atop the all-time record book, having discovered the news from friends alerting him to that fact after seeing it on social media.
“When I got in, the first person I saw was [punter/holder] Johnny Hekker, and I turned to Johnny and I said, ‘Do you think he knows?'” long snapper JJ Jansen said. “And Johnny looked at me with kind of a wry smile, and he said, ‘I think he knows. I think he knows.’ Eddy is like a lot of kickers: very competitive and very aware of what’s going on around the league. It’s just kind of that position, and everyone’s kind of comparing themselves, and it’s how all those guys stay motivated.
“So an opportunity to get up and into that upper echelon, whether it be number one or over 90 percent for her career, all those different things, they’re always looking for extra motivation. And so this is just another example of that.”
