Giorgio Tavecchio
When special teams coach Brad Seely was asked if Giorgio Tavecchio was anything more than a camp leg, he had some interesting things to say, “Not at all, no. It’s like every other position on our football team, we’re trying to create competition, and Giorgio is a guy that is an NFL kicker.” This of course is on par with the mindset that strong players breed strong competition, and the starting kicker gig will not stray away from that belief.
Although Janikowski, the seventeen year veteran, Oakland’s all-time leading scorer and the only remaining player from the last Raiders’ team to go to the super bowl, has all the experience that you look for in a kicker, and every chance to hold on to that starting job, Tavecchio is in no hurry to go anywhere but atop that depth chart.
Kicking in training camp is much different than, say, kicking a game-winning field goal at Mile High Stadium in the blistering cold, which is why any opportunity that Tavecchio can take advantage of to show he has what it takes to make it in the NFL, he needs to. Although it is only Week 1 of the preseason, for Tavecchio, this opportunity means much more.
Next: Gabe Holmes