Gould last played for the 49ers in 2022, converting on 27-of-32 field goals. Gould, whose retirement announcement comes the day after his 41st birthday, entered the league as a rookie UDFA in 2005 with the Patriots. He was released by the Patriots at the end of the preseason and eventually caught on with the Bears in October of that same year. Gould would go on to kick 11 seasons for the Bears before spending one year with the Giants and then closing out his career with six seasons as a 49er. Gould steps away from the game having made 86.5 percent of his field goal attempts and 97.5 percent of his extra points.

Gould kicked for San Francisco for each of the previous six seasons. The league's eighth most accurate kicker (86.5%) has made 447 career field goals and still stands as Chicago's all-time leading scorer. The lone blemish in his kicking profile at this point in his career is a relative lack of leg strength to be able to reliably make field goals over 50 yards. He should draw significant interest on the open market.

His injury has likely cleared up enough for him to take kicks in the fantasy feast sure to come from 49ers/Falcons. The team had added Sam Sloman to the practice squad earlier in the week, but Gould was able to practice on both Thursday and Friday.

It's quite an upgrade for the 39-year-old kicker. The 49ers did bring in practice squad kicker Sam Sloman this week, but this designation would seem to suggest that it was a case of being overly cautious rather than Sloman replacing Gould this week. Gould missed practice entirely on Wednesday. The run-heavy 49ers/Falcons game probably doesn't project as a fantasy gold mine for either kicker.