For the second year in a row, the Chicago Bears will have competition for their starting kicker role, as G.M. Ryan Pace confirmed that the team plans to have Ramiz Ahmed compete with incumbent Eddy Pineiro for the job.
Pace, who signed Ahmed to a contract last week, said during a conference call Tuesday that the team liked the kicker coming out of college, and that he has been “getting better” since his collegiate days at Nevada.
“We knew we wanted to add competition there. We liked him coming out of college and we felt like he was getting better,” Pace said.
Pineiro, who beat out a group of other kickers to replace Cody Parkey last summer, appeared in all 16 Bears games during the 2019 season. He made 23-of-28 field goals and 27-of-29 extra points during his first season with the team.
Despite those numbers, Pineiro will once again have to compete for his job against Ahmed, and while Pace doesn’t expect to add more kickers into the mix, he does think the competition will be health for the team.
“We love Eddy, and we think his future is very bright, but we think competition is good for everyone,” he said. “Those two competing against each other is a really good thing.”
During the 2018 season at Nevada, Ahmed made 40-of-45 extra points and 15-of-20 field goals.
