49ers Stick With Eddy Piñeiro Through Bye: Fantasy Kicker Outlook

San Francisco is not opening a kicker competition during its Week 8 bye. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that the 49ers do not plan to work out kickers, keeping Eddy Piñeiro in place after his fourth missed extra point of the season. The decision supplies short-term roster clarity, but it does not erase a sharp performance split fantasy managers need to understand.

What the 49ers decided

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on October 26 that Shanahan ruled out bye-week kicker tryouts after Piñeiro missed an extra point in Sunday’s 29-20 loss at Atlanta. That miss prevented the 49ers from reducing the deficit to five points in the fourth quarter. It was his second missed extra point in two games and his fourth through seven weeks.

The decision is support, not immunity. San Francisco can keep working on timing and mechanics without adding a second kicker now, then reassess if the problem continues after the bye. A coach declining tryouts on Monday is also narrower than a season-long guarantee. The team’s next game provides the next real pressure test.

Piñeiro’s 2026 numbers tell two different stories

The official 49ers player log lists Piñeiro at 21 of 25 on extra points, an 84.0 percent rate. He missed two attempts against Arizona, one against Washington and one against Atlanta. Those misses have now appeared in three of San Francisco’s last five games.

His field-goal line is also 6 of 9, but the location matters. Piñeiro is 4 of 4 from inside 50 yards and 2 of 5 from 50 to 59. He made a 57-yarder against Arizona, while all three field-goal misses came from long range. That is still a disappointing 66.7 percent overall rate, yet it describes a different problem from the extra-point misses: shorter field goals have been dependable, long attempts have not, and point-after consistency has become the most urgent issue.

The 2025 comparison explains why San Francisco is showing patience. Piñeiro made 28 of 29 field goals last season, including all six attempts from 50 to 59 yards, and converted 34 of 38 extra points. The current slide is real, but the team also has a recent high-level sample supporting the belief that he can recover.

Fantasy football action plan

• Week 8: Piñeiro is on a bye and must leave starting lineups. Managers in ordinary one-kicker leagues should stream a replacement rather than sacrifice a useful bench player to carry two kickers.

• Rest of season: Do not treat the coach’s backing as a reason to overpay. Piñeiro remains a matchup-based option because the 49ers create scoring chances, but misses can be costly in formats that subtract points.

• Week 9 vs. Las Vegas: Check for any roster move after the bye. If Piñeiro remains the only kicker and the offense is healthy, he can return to the streaming pool, but his recent floor is lower than San Francisco’s team reputation suggests.

• Long-range bonus leagues: The 57-yard make preserves ceiling, but a 2-for-5 record from 50-plus makes him volatile. Reward structure matters more than brand name.

• DFS and betting markets: Do not assume every touchdown becomes seven points or every stalled drive becomes three. The 49ers’ fourth-down choices may also change if confidence wavers near the edge of range.

Why the bye week helps without solving the issue

The bye gives the operation time to isolate the problem among snap, hold, approach and ball flight without the disruption of an open competition. It also lets San Francisco avoid using a roster spot on a second kicker while the club evaluates several injured players. Continuity can be valuable at a precision position, especially when the current kicker was nearly automatic on field goals one year ago.

The counterargument is straightforward: extra points are high-probability plays, and four misses in seven games can change late-game strategy. The Atlanta miss immediately affected the score math. If the pattern survives the bye, patience becomes harder to defend because postseason games routinely turn on one possession.

Next checkpoint: Raiders at 49ers

San Francisco is 6-1 and off in Week 8. The official schedule lists the next game for Sunday, November 8, against the Las Vegas Raiders at Levi’s Stadium. Fantasy managers should verify the Week 9 roster, any special-teams comments during the first practice week and Piñeiro’s early-game operation before treating him as a set-and-forget option.

The bottom line is balanced: the 49ers have made their immediate choice, and Piñeiro keeps the job through the bye. His perfect record from inside 50 and elite 2025 field-goal season justify one more evaluation window. His 84.0 percent extra-point rate and three long-range misses justify caution. For fantasy, that makes him a post-bye streamer with upside—not a protected roster asset.

Sources and factual cutoff

• San Francisco Chronicle — Shanahan’s October 26 bye-week kicker decision.

• San Francisco 49ers player log — 2026 and 2025 kicking results.

• San Francisco 49ers schedule — Week 8 bye and Week 9 Raiders matchup.

Factual cutoff: October 27, 2026 at 10:45 a.m. Central. Fantasy recommendations are Football Nation analysis.