Giorgio Tavecchio has been here and done that before, so it’s not like he’s new as the Falcons kicker except that, well, yeah, he’ll be very new as the Falcons kicker in Monday night’s game against the Giants because his first time didn’t really count.
When he lines up to kick field goals and extra points in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it won’t be the first time that Josh Harris will snap to Matt Bosher so that he can hold for the Italian-born booter. These kicks, though, will count.
Tavecchio spent less than a week with the team in August and kicked in the Falcons’ final exhibition game, against Miami, to save the right leg of 43-year-old kicker Matt Bryant, the Falcons’ all-time leading scorer. Then, he was released, once again to become an NFL journeyman.
Well, Bryant’s right leg is at least temporarily blown now, as the 57-yard field goal he kicked Sunday to preserve a 34-29 win over the Buccaneers took a hamstring with it.
Enter Tavecchio, who made 16 of 21 field-goal attempts and 33 of 34 point-after attempts last season for the Raiders after kicker Sebastian Janikowski went down with a back injury.
He seems to feel at home as a stand-in.
“I will say this, when I came here for my workout in the middle of the summer I felt a very positive vibe,” said the former Cal star. “When I came back at the end of camp, I experienced more of that, and it was something that I really appreciated.”
The Falcons are welcoming Tavecchio, even if he’s turning them around. Actually, he’s turning around only Bosher, who’s accustomed to holding for the right-footed Bryant.
Giorgio kicks with his left foot, so coach Dan Quinn said Saturday that he was very glad “they got three full days” to work on a new snap-hold-kick operation, whose parameters for measurement will not change even if all of Bosher’s handwork will.
“I held for Giorgio in (exhibition) season. It’s an experience,” Bosher said. “... If you write your name with your right hand, put the pen in your other hand ... it’s just one of those things that you’ve got to rep it out, and luckily Giorgio will let me know what I need to do to get better. I have to make sure that come Monday, we are ready to go ...
“Our world, that we live is in a 1.26- to 1.31-second world. It’s very quick time. We have to get that timing down. It’s all about reps. The more reps you get, the more precise you’re going to be.”
Tavechhio, who was born in Milan, Italy, only to grow up in the Bay Area in California, has been on the go, go, go for several years.
He had a fine college career for the Golden Bears, making 48 of 64 field-goal attempts and 112 of 120 PATs as a four-year starter before he wasn’t drafted in 2012 after a workout for NFL scouts was scuttled by weather.
Giorgio has since spent time with the 49ers, Packers, Lions and Raiders, though he reached the regular season only last year, with Oakland – on his fourth stint with the team.
Clearly, he never gave up on an NFL career, and he stayed in kicking shape after the Falcons waived him Sept. 1 by kicking at his high school and his college alma mater.
“I was training almost every day, whether it was lifting or kicking, and I started swimming a little bit. Just tried to stay sharp, and follow the games on Sundays,” he explained. “... I split time between my high school field and Cal.
“They were very gracious to allow me to keep using the facilities there, the weight room, the field.”
Kicking at Cal was better, he said, than kicking at his high school, where there was no net to catch his kicks, and in both places he usually was going solo.
“Just me, myself and my hopes and dreams,” Tavecchio said.
The Falcons hope that Bryant makes it back. He wasn’t available to media this week, and no prognosis has been given by team officials. Bryant missed games in 2015 with a quadriceps injury.
He’s around, yet missed at the same time.
“Matt will tell you that he was a linebacker back in the day (in Orange, Texas). Now, it was a long time ago, but Matt is a tough guy,” Bosher said. “To see him go down, it was unfortunate. Knowing who is and what he stands for, he’ll fight for it. He’s a guy who gave all he had literally.”
Quinn said that Bosher will continue to handle kickoffs, as the punter long has, although, “Giorgio is certainly capable.”
Tavecchio has lived a dream before, just last season, in fact, when he put together a solid NFL debut season for one of his hometown teams.
He’s carrying positive vibes from that season into this.
“It was a hell of a ride. It was good to be the hometown kid that worked his way up ... and to be able to share that experience, that success with people who were there every step of the way,” he recalled. “I’m just focusing on my job, focusing on today ... and let it go.”
