Blair Walsh is back

[Blitz]

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Blair Walsh, out of football for all of 2018, has returned to the sport in the same state where he starred as college kicker.

The Falcons have signed Walsh. The team announced the move on Saturday.

Walsh, 29, entereed the NFL as a sixth-round pick of the Vikings in 2012. Solid for four seasons, a shanked game winner (which became a game loser) in the 2015 wild-card playoffs on what would have been an open-air afternoon for the ages in Minnesota greased the skids to his exit from the game. Since missing that kick, Walsh simply hasn’t been the same.

He missed eight kicks in nine games during the 2016 season before the Vikings released him. He missed eight kicks in 16 games with the Seahawks in 2017; they didn’t bring him back for 2018, opting to go with Sebastian Janikowski.

Walsh, who tried out for the Jets two weeks ago, provides competition in Atlanta for Giorgio Tavecchio, who replaced Janikowski in Oakland during the 2017 season. He has missed four of eight field goal attempts for the Falcons this preseason.

If Walsh wins the Week One job, his debut will come against the Vikings. In Minnesota.