Throughout this whole offseason, the Atlanta Falcons have been trying to find their kicker of the future. They thought they had it in kicker Giorgio Tavecchio, who was on the roster last season and made all five of his field goal attempts in relief of injured kicker Matt Bryant. This preseason though has shown that the Falcons are still in the hunt for a reliable kicker.
So far this preseason, Tavecchio has struggled. Heading into the final preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tavecchio has only made half of his field goal attempts, going four-for-eight in games. He’s also been inconsistent in practice. With his struggles, the Falcons worked out multiple kickers this past week and signed kicker Blair Walsh to compete with Tavecchio. Falcons head coach Dan Quinn spoke about the move earlier this week.
“We did bring in a few kickers yesterday to work out and quite honestly we hoped we wouldn’t be in that spot, but like all positions, we’ve missed the mark in terms of where we would like to be right now,” said Quinn. “So, we thought it was appropriate to take a look at some other kickers as we’re going through it.”
Even with the signing of Walsh, the Falcons’ kicking woes have continued. In one practice, Walsh went five-for-nine, with the misses not being close at all. With Walsh struggling as well, before the final preseason game was played, news came out that the Falcons would be bringing in their former kicker Bryant for a workout following the game.
After the final preseason game, a 31-13 victory over Jacksonville, Quinn confirmed Bryant’s workout.
“Yeah, he’s a guy we’ve been talking about for a while,” said Quinn. “We had scheduled him to come in. For sure like all positions, you wanna make sure you’re evaluating and doing what’s best for the team and so Matt’s a guy that we obviously have great faith in and belief in so it’ll be good to see him tomorrow and get a workout and see where he’s at.”
Against Jacksonville, the Falcons continued with their kicking competition with Tavecchio getting all of the reps in the first half and Walsh getting the reps in the second half. While Tavecchio made all three off his extra point attempts, he missed his only field goal attempt, a 53-yard attempt that was wide left. Conversely, Walsh made his only extra point attempt as well as a 46-yard field goal, but he also missed a field goal. That attempt was 46-yards and it was blocked after the interior of the line fell apart, allowing Jaguars defensive end Datone Jones to block the kick.
Quinn spoke after the game about the performance of the kickers so far.
“I think we haven’t hit the mark,” said Quinn in regards to both Tavecchio and Walsh. “I’ve got lots of faith in Giorgio, last year he was five-for-five you know when we had him here when Matt was injured. We haven’t hit the same mark this year. So that’s what prompted the weeks now of looking and evaluating, which is why Blair came in as well so it’s hard to process when you don’t make the mark. I wouldn’t say we lost faith but our first experience with him (Tavecchio) was an excellent one, and right now we’re not getting it done.”
Right now, barring any sort of injury, it seems likely that the Falcons will sign Bryant if his workout goes well. He was the kicker from 2009-2018 and was extremely consistent. Even last season, being plagued by injuries and age (he was 43, he’s 44 now) he made 20-21 field goals. If he shows that he’s still in good shape and can play, it makes sense that the Falcons would sign a kicker that they know is reliable and they have trust in. Because as this preseason has demonstrated, both Tavecchio and Walsh are too inconsistent to keep on the roster.
Written by Erik Slaby
