Tag: Robbie Gould

Robbie Gould says he would ‘absolutely’ come back to play for the Bears again

Robbie Gould would welcome a return to the Bears this offseason.

It’s been nearly eight years since the Chicago Bears said goodbye to kicker Robbie Gould, but if he were presented the opportunity to come back this offseason, he’s letting everyone know he would be all for it.

Gould, a free agent after spending the last six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, joined ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy show for the station’s 25th anniversary special on Friday afternoon at the House of Blues in Chicago. After reminiscing about Gould’s relationship with the station where he’s been a frequent guest and co-host, the conversation eventually turned to free agency and whether or not he would welcome a reunion with the Bears. He didn’t mince words.

“If Chicago called me and said ‘we want you back,’ would I do it? Absolutely,” Gould told the hosts, resulting in a round of applause from the live audience. He then praised the Bears and general manager Ryan Poles for their offseason up to this point, from trading the No. 1 overall pick to the signings of players like Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards, and how the team is coming together around Justin Fields before reiterating his desire to play again for his former team. “Yeah, I would love to come back and play for Chicago for sure.”

The all-time leading scorer in Bears history and fan-favorite player was with the team from 2005-2015 and converted 85.4% of his field goals during his tenure. He was released just prior to the 2016 season and spent one year with the New York Giants before winding up with the 49ers. Now he wants to kick closer to home and though he has a desire to end up with the Bears again, the cards are stacked against him.

The Bears still have Cairo Santos on the roster and Poles appears to be content with keeping him for another season. Santos has been the Bears kicker since 2020 and is entering the final year of his deal with a cap hit of $4.5 million this season. Santos converted 91.3% of his field goals in 2022, nearly seven percent higher than Gould (84.4%). Though Gould has been clutch, particularly in the postseason where he has yet to miss a field goal, it would be surprising to see the Bears move away from Santos at this time.

For now, Bears fans will be left dreaming of a reunion with Gould. At least the feeling is mutual for many of them.

Every former Penn State player who will be an NFL free agent

Penn State has 40 players currently in the NFL, 13 of them are primed to be free agents when the new league year starts.

Penn State has 40 players currently in the NFL, 13 of them are primed to be free agents next week.

Penn State has long been a storied program in the college football ranks and they have always produced quality NFL talent, including several Hall of Fame players. In the mix of it all, the present crop of Nittany Lions in the league is well-represented at nearly every position.

Here are the 13 looming free agents that have played inside Beaver Stadium that will be looking for new deals when the NFL league year begins on Tuesday.

Former Nittany Lion Robbie Gould poised for NFL free agency

It looks like an all-time Penn State player is heading to NFL free agency.

Not many kickers have been as consistent as [autotag]Robbie Gould[/autotag] in recent memory. With plenty of big kicks made in the regular season and playoffs, and the way that kicking has been for a lot of teams, the value he has can not be measured.

In a roundabout way, Gould heads into free agency with a lot of money to make, and make it he shall.

“Veteran kicker Robbie Gould said today that, as much as he enjoyed the last six seasons in San Francisco, he will test free agency later this month and be kicking elsewhere in 2023,” ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter said on Monday, via Twitter.

Gould would not be about to cash in on NFL free agency were it not for a letter that was written to Penn State coach Joe Paterno at the time. Gould’s high school soccer coach wrote a letter to the late Paterno which would earn him a spot to try out for the team before earning a role as a walk-on. While Gould would work on earning his degree in business management, he would do his best to hone his kicking skills but based on the numbers, that was harder than one would think.

In four years with the Nittany Lions, he made 115 of 121 extra-point attempts and 39 of 61 field goal attempts. While the accuracy of 64% wasn’t anything to write home about in State College, he has earned a whopping 86.5% kicking accuracy while making 447 of 517 attempts in the NFL.

Gould has experience with the ups and downs that a football life can throw at people. It will be nice to see how far he has come from working construction between being undrafted in 2005 and signing with the Bears by seeing the number he signs for this Spring.

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Reordering priority of 49ers offseason needs

The Robbie Gould news means we have to recalibrate the #49ers’ offseason needs:

With less than two weeks until NFL free agency opens, the 49ers list of offseason needs got a new addition and forced a recalibration of their priorities. Kicker Robbie Gould will be exploring the free agent market and signing with another team.

Kicker was always going to be at least some kind of hurdle since Gould is due to become an unrestricted free agent, but this vaults the need up the list of priorities for San Francisco this offseason.

Free agency, set to open with the negotiating period on March 13, will help check a few of these boxes, but the team isn’t likely to have enough salary cap space to make any huge splashes in that market. They’ll also have 10 picks in the NFL draft. Some of these needs will get eliminated in free agency, so we’ll circle back and recalibrate then.

Here’s where things stand heading into the opening of free agency:

Robbie Gould emerges as potential Titans free-agent target

With Robbie Gould notifying the 49ers he’s leaving in free agency, he now becomes a target for the Titans.

The Tennessee Titans will be in the market for a kicker this offseason after the team cut veteran kicker Randy Bullock recently, and one very intriguing name has now become a potential option for Tennessee.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, San Francisco 49ers kicker Robbie Gould has made it clear he will not only test free agency, but will play elsewhere in 2023.

Of course, the Titans’ need for a kicker makes him a candidate by default, but there’s more than one reason to believe he could end up in Nashville.

Gould spent six seasons with the Niners, first coming aboard in 2017, which just so happens to be the year new Titans general manager Ran Carthon began his stint in San Fran.

Both spent all six of their years there together, so they should be familiar with one another.

Tennessee let Bullock go because of his lack of leg strength, which limited the team to shorter field goals, potentially taking points off the board.

The Titans have Caleb Shudak on the roster and he has a bigger leg than Bullock, but he lacks the experience to trust him as the starter.

Gould is the best kicker on the market and checks all the boxes, so it goes without saying the Titans should be interested.

He has the leg to make longer field goals and is as consistent as they come, with his 84.4 percent success rate on field goals ranking eighth in NFL history.

The only real concern is Gould’s age, as he just turned 40, but he is coming off a good season, so there’s no indication he’s on the down side just yet.

“I’m nowhere near retiring,” Gould said back in January. “I got a lot left to do from a career perspective — No. 1 being winning a Super Bowl. And, two, I’m pretty close to a lot of milestones I think would be pretty neat to be able to accomplish.”

Gould’s last contract paid him $7.25 million over two years, which worked out to an average of $3.625 million, which is about $1 million more than what Tennessee was going to pay Bullock this season.

If there’s mutual interest and the Titans are planning on competing this year and can make it work with their tight salary cap situation, Carthon should definitely bring Gould aboard.

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Report: Robbie Gould won’t return to 49ers next season

It doesn’t look like Robbie Gould will be back with the 49ers in 2023.

Robbie Gould’s time with the 49ers appears to be over. ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday reported Gould will test free agency and sign elsewhere for the 2023 season.

Gould, 40, signed with the 49ers before the 2017 season and kicked for them the last six years. After some struggles in 2019, he regained his form and drilled 66 of 78 field goal tries over the last three years.

The 49ers leaned heavily on the veteran kicker in clutch moments during each of their playoff runs, including the kick in Green Bay that sent them to the NFC championship game in 2021.

Replacing Gould won’t be easy. Kicker now shoots to the top of the 49ers’ list of offseason needs. They could work out free agent kickers in camp or draft one with their bevy of Day 2 and 3 picks.

Free agency negotiations can begin March 13, and the league year officially opens March 15.

Will 49ers use franchise tag this offseason?

Will the #49ers use the franchise tag this offseason?

The 49ers don’t typically have to resort to the franchise tag. They’ve done a nice job of extending players before they reach the point of needing to utilize the one-year tag. This offseason it’s hard to envision the 49ers going to that well.

Because the tag is a one-year, fully-guaranteed deal worth an average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, they tend to only go to players a team wants to ensure stays in the building to work toward a long-term deal. The 49ers likely don’t have any players they’re itching to put the tag on.

Kicker Robbie Gould stayed in San Francisco last time he was an unrestricted free agent thanks to the tag. The 49ers could opt for that route again if they don’t want to go find a new kicker this offseason or they can’t work out a multi-year deal with the 40-year-old. Gould would cost San Francisco $5,393,000 this year on the tag.

Right tackle Mike McGlinchey is another player who conceivably could get tagged. The idea of keeping McGlinchey for one more year to evaluate his long-term value is certainly interesting. The problem arises with the tag amount. Offensive lineman get $18,244,000 on the one-year deal. That’s probably more than McGlinchey will get per year on the open market, and if the 49ers really value him enough to tag him, they’d be more apt to try a long-term deal that decreases that number.

The same issue arises for defensive back Jimmie Ward. The 49ers would probably like to keep him around, but his tag number would be a whopping $14,460,000.

Prices on both McGlinchey and Ward all but eliminate the possibility of the 49ers issuing that franchise tag.

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Picking free agents 49ers should try to re-sign in 2023

Which of the #49ers’ 21 unrestricted free agents should they aim to re-sign? Nicholas McGee (@nicholasmcgee24) runs through the entire list:

It’s going to be a busy offseason for the 49ers, who on top of replenishing their coaching staff and thinking about the draft, have the futures of 21 unrestricted free agents to think about.

The roster turnover in the NFL is what makes a season-ending loss, which the 49ers suffered in last week’s NFC championship game, hit so hard.

No team is ever the same year over year, but the Niners will want to keep as much of their 2022 vintage as they can.

But San Francisco is projected to be just under $16.4 million below the projected 2023 salary cap, and will not have the financial means to keep everyone.

So which players should they be looking to keep around? We’ve gone through the list of 21 UFAs and identified whether San Francisco should aim to re-sign them to a new contract.

Robbie Gould helps 49ers reach NFC title game by remaining perfect

Nothing is guaranteed in life except death, taxes, and Robbie Gould kicking field goals in the postseason.

Nothing in life is guaranteed except for death, taxes, and [autotag]Robbie Gould[/autotag] converting a postseason field goal attempt. The former Penn State kicker once again was perfect on every field goal attempt he took in Sunday’s NFC Divisional Round matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, and the 49ers needed Gould’s perfect postseason career streak to continue.

The 49ers won a defensive battle with the Cowboys to advance to next week’s NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia.

Remarkably, Gould’s postseason clutchness streak continued on Sunday, as he is now a perfect 63-for-63 on field goals and PATs over the course of his 18-year career.

But it wasn’t just his kicking that came up big for the 49ers. Gould also made a potentially game-changing tackle on a kickoff return by the Cowboys, preventing a possible touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Gould is joined by fellow former Penn State player Kevin Givens in the 49ers’ latest attempt to reach and win the Super Bowl. To get there, they will have to win a road game in Philadelphia next week against Miles Sanders and the top-seeded Eagles in next week’s NFC championship game. For all of Goulden’s postseason success, he is still lacking a Super Bowl ring. Will he keep his streak going against Philadelphia for one more shot at the Lombardi Trophy?

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Miles Sanders moving on to NFC Championship

Miles Sanders out-rushed Saquon Barkley as the Eagles eliminated the Giants.

In a showdown of former Penn State running backs in the NFC Divisional Round, [autotag]Miles Sanders[/autotag] and his Philadelphia Eagles got the best of [autotag]Saquon Barkley[/autotag] and the New York Giants. Sanders out-rushed Barkley in the Eagles’ 38-7 victory on Saturday night in Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia as the Eagles moved on to the NFC Championship Game next week.

Sanders carried the football 17 times for the Eagles and rushed 90 yards. That was enough to lead all players and the team in rushing yards until just after the two-minute warning when teammate Kenneth Gainwell ripped off a 35-yard touchdown run to eclipse the 100-yard mark. Gainwell’s final college football game was played against Penn State in the 2019 Cotton Bowl. Gainwell rushed for 34 yards and accounted for 78 receiving yards for Memphis in Penn State’s Cotton Bowl victory.

Barkley finished the game with 61 rushing yards and 21 receiving yards, but the Eagles kept him out of the end zone a week after Barkley scored two touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL’s super wild card weekend.

Sanders and the Eagles will be home for next week’s NFC Championship Game. The top seed in the NFC will host the winner of Sunday’s divisional-round matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. One way or another, Sanders will be going head-to-head against more former Nittany Lions. [autotag]Micah Parsons[/autotag] and [autotag]Connor McGovern[/autotag] are starters for the Cowboys, and [autotag]Robbie Gould[/autotag] and [autotag]Kevin Givens[/autotag] play for the 49ers.

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