Blair Walsh

Walsh lasted only a week in Atlanta, with the team ultimately deciding to re-sign franchise mainstay Matt Bryant. The ex-Viking struggled in his practice session Tuesday, hitting only five of nine tries, but it is uncertain if that performance played a major factor in the Falcons going a different direction at kicker.

Head coach Dan Quinn was adamant that looking too closely at practice stats is a "dangerous subject," but did concede that Walsh's performance took a dip between Monday and Tuesday. Quinn stressed that in-game results are a far stronger indicator of ability, and the coaching staff will have to make a decision on the starting kicker based on that. Giorgio Tavecchio has floundered with four missed field goals on eight opportunities thus far in the preseason slate, while Walsh enters Thursday's tilt with Jacksonville having posted a 79.9 percent conversion rate over his past five NFL seasons, after hitting 92.1 percent as a rookie.

Walsh last saw an NFL field with the Seahawks in 2017, where he made 21 of 29 field goal attempts (72 percent). Before that, the 29-year-old spent five seasons with the Vikings, where he converted 84.2 percent of his field-goal attempts and 94.5 percent of his tries on extra points. Walsh will be joined by Giorgio Tavecchio in Atlanta.

This has been coming since he missed the game winning chip shot kick in Minnesota's playoff game against the Seahawks. The Vikings worked out Randy Bullock, Kai Forbath, Zach Hocker and Travis Coons last week but after another missed extra point on Sunday in the Vikings loss to the Redskins, they decided to finally cut ties. We will see soon who replaces him in Minnesota.