Well, we’ve mentioned it a few times, but it hasn’t been appropriately stated: the San Francisco 49ers are going to get Robbie Gould back for Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.
The 49ers released their injury report for Thursday, and for the second day straight, Gould has been listed as a full participant. This does not mean the 49ers are out of the woods yet, as fill-in kicker Chase McLaughlin remains on the roster. Once we get the announcement that McLaughlin is released (and why would they keep two kickers on the 53? ), then you can start feeling good about Gould taking the field Sunday.
All that considered, if Gould has been a full participant in practice the last few days, it would have to take a huge setback for the 49ers to not put him on the field. He was seen last week before the Green Bay Packers game kicking and didn’t look horrible, but probably just needed another week before he could put the pads on and feel 100 percent.
While McLaughlin will be remembered as “That guy who cost the game against the Seahawks,” he hasn’t been horrible beyond that atrocious miss, making 76 percent of his kicks. Look, I know that percentage isn’t going to set the world on fire, but I remember a certain kicker named David Akers, and we all know just how bad that was and what McLaughlin could have been.
Now that Gould is healthy, hopefully, the kicking unit itself has no more issues. First, it was the long snapper, and then it was questions of Mitch Wishnowsky’s holds, then Gould himself was yipping things. All of this should be good to go for the rest of the Gauntlet and the eventual Super Bowl run.
No. More. Injuries.