A missed field-goal attempt by Anders Carlson played a part in the San Francisco 49ers reaching the Super Bowl last season. On Sunday, Carlson will be kicking for the 49ers when they play the Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch of the 2023 NFL championship game.
San Francisco signed the former Auburn kicker to its practice squad on Tuesday after kicker Jake Moody sustained an ankle injury in a 24-23 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 6 and missed Sunday’s 36-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. San Francisco brought in Matthew Wright to kick in that game, but he sustained a shoulder injury.
The 49ers placed Wright on injured reserve and elevated Carlson from the practice squad on Saturday.
“(Wright) is hurt worse than we expected, so he can’t get back,” San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan said. “And Jake Moody is still week-to-week with a high ankle sprain, so not expecting him next week either, but, hopefully, after the bye.”
Moody and Wright got hurt making tackles on kickoffs. Shanahan was asked if the 49ers would let Carlson attempt a kickoff tackle against the Chiefs.
“Definitely is allowed to,” Shanahan said, “but it’s only in case of emergency, so I hope he isn’t attacking anything. But if your choice is just to give up a touchdown or not, we’ll always choose to not give up the touchdown. But, hopefully, he can stay out of harm’s way.”
Carlson had been a free agent since Aug. 27, when the Green Bay Packers released him after he served as the team’s kicker in the 2023 season.
Green Bay had an offseason/training camp/preseason kicking competition between Carlson and Greg Joseph, who had been the Minnesota Vikings’ kicker for the past three seasons. But when the time came to set the regular-season roster, the Packers cut Carlson and Joseph and claimed Brayden Narveson after he had been waived by the Tennessee Titans. This week, Green Bay waived Narveson and replaced him with veteran Brandon McManus.
Carlson joined the Packers as a sixth-round selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. He displaced 16-year veteran Mason Crosby as Green Bay’s kicker and became the first rookie in league history to make a field goal in 17 regular-season games. But with the playoffs included, he also had the most misses on extra points with six and on total kicks with 13 in the NFL in 2023.
In his first NFL season, Carlson made 27-of-33 field-goal attempts and 34-of-39 extra-point tries in the regular season and 2-of-3 field-goal attempts and 7-of-8 extra-point tries in two postseason games.
Carlson’s postseason field-goal miss came on a 41-yard attempt with 6:18 left in a second-round game against San Francisco on Jan. 20. The 49ers responded with a 12-play, 69-yard drive capped by running back Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 67 seconds to play. San Francisco took a 24-21 lead instead of tying the game, and that ended up as the final score.
The 49ers play the Chiefs at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Kansas City defeated San Francisco 25-22 in Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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