Freddie Falcon
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Replacing Matt Bryant is proving as the placekicker in Atlanta is proving to be a bumpy road for Giorgio Tavecchio.
Tavecchio missed his only field goal attempt, a 39-yard attempt, in Thursday night’s preseason game against the Washington Redskins. During the preseason, Tavecchio has now missed four of his eight field goal attempts. However, the miss against Washington was the first inside 50 yards.
According to Jason Butt of TheAthletic.com, head coach Dan Quinn said after the game that he would “evaluate that spot like others.”
“Any time at any position, when we miss the mark, we want to find out why and what we can do to get better,” Quinn said. “It’s definitely a spot we are continuing to evaluate and that is always the case.”
Tavecchio’s four misses this preseason have come from 54, 52, 52 and 39 yards.
“It’s been a little disappointing from a results standpoint,” Tavecchio said. “But I can say everything else, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience so far in training camp with teammates, coaches, just my own experience in this football journey. I just want the results to reflect that.”
Taking over for Bryant isn’t an easy task. Bryant made 88.7 percent of his field goals during his 10 seasons with Atlanta. He made 53 of his 56 total kicks for the Falcons last season, including 20 of 21 field goal attempts.
Tavecchio made all five attempts in replacing an injured Bryant last season in Atlanta, but he made just 16 of 21 attempts with the Oakland Raiders in his lone full-time season in 2017 in place of an injured Sebastian Janikowski. Whether he can succeed anywhere near Bryant’s level on a full-time basis is still uncertain. Whether he’ll even get that chance in Atlanta may not been less certain as well.