Giorgio Tavecchio is a fighter and it’s a good thing because the odds sure seem to be stacked against him right now in Oakland.
Tavecchio had a good year last year, but not a great year. Now the Raiders have added a touted college kicker and his holder.
Tavecchio’s holder was Marquette King.
Speaking to season ticket holders this week on a conference call, Jon Gruden didn’t seem to hold back any praise for rookie kicker Eddy Piñeiro:
“When you talk about Eddy Piñeiro, he hasn’t missed a field goal. We watched him kick today and he made every one. The holder is Johnny Townsend, by the way who was also a Florida Gator punter who held for him [Piñeiro] in college.
We felt Eddy was so good we were going to draft him in the seventh round, that’s how much we thought of this kid, and we paid him a lot of money to make sure we were going to get him as an undrafted free agent. He and Tavecchio are going to have a great battle in training camp, but when you go back to the holder, the cool thing is we do have Johnny Townsend who’s an experience holder, and has a lot of experience holding for Piñeiro, which I think is going to help him tremendously.”
For years, it was Tavecchio’s left foot that kept him with the Raiders as he was a perfect backup for the left-footed Sebastian Janikowski.
With the Raiders now invested in a right-footed kicker, there’s no guarantee Gruden will choose to drag out the kicking competition by flip-flopping holders – especially if Piñeiro isn’t missing any kicks.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Tavecchio was a nice story, but it seems he’s as good as gone barring Piñeiro having an awful camp/preseason. Kid had a lot of success in college and has the benefit of not only being a priority free agent who the team, it appears, worked hard to acquire, but also has his college holder with him. Big, accurate leg, he could stick for a while.
it’s obvious pineiro is gonna be the new kicker.
hope tavecchio can land a spot in the nfc