49ers tap into Panthers pipeline for kicker to replace Robbie Gould

SANTA CLARA — And right here’s the kicker: Zane Gonzalez, Robbie Gould’s obvious successor with the 49ers.

The 49ers ushered out Gould’s six-year tenure Friday by buying and selling for Gonzalez from the Carolina Panthers, a franchise that has provided them a pipeline of expertise since final October.

Previous Gonzalez on the cross-country transfer: operating again Christian McCaffrey in final October’s commerce, new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks in January, and quarterback Sam Darnold and cornerback Myles Hartsfield in free company.

Not like the midseason commerce for McCaffrey that value the 49ers a haul of draft picks (together with 2023 second-, third- and fourth-round spots), Gonzalez was acquired on a budget, for a conditional swap of late-round choose within the 2025 draft, the 49ers introduced.

Gonzalez, who should nonetheless go a bodily to finish the commerce, was deemed expendable as soon as the Panthers signed Eddie Pineiro to a two-year deal Thursday.

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – AUGUST 19: Zane Gonzalez #5 of the Carolina Panthers appears to be like on in the course of the preseason recreation between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium on August 19, 2022 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Picture by Maddie Meyer/Getty Photos) 

Gould stays on the free agent market that opened final week. He introduced March 4 that he wouldn't be re-signing with the 49ers, who nonetheless may use one in all their 11 picks in subsequent month’s draft on a kicker to problem Gonzalez, who comes with the 49ers’ most well-liked skill to additionally kick off.

Gonzalez, 27, missed final season with a quadriceps harm. An All-American out of Arizona State in 2016, he was a 2017 seventh-round choose of the Cleveland Browns, who minimize him two video games into the 2018 season. Gonzalez then made 54-of-66 field-goal makes an attempt and 77-of-80 point-after kicks with the Arizona Cardinals by the 2020 season.

The Panthers signed him in 2021 off the Detroit Lions follow squad, and he made 20-of-22 field-goal makes an attempt (22-of-23 point-after kicks) in 12 video games earlier than a quadriceps harm ended his season.

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – JANUARY 22: San Francisco 49ers’ Robbie Gould (9) celebrates his recreation successful area purpose in opposition to the Inexperienced Bay Packers for his or her NFC divisional playoff NFL recreation at Lambeau Area in Inexperienced Bay, Wi., on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group) Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group

Gonzalez’s profession totals embody an 80.5-percent field-goal accuracy with 91 area targets and 400 factors. These numbers pale compared to the 18-year totals of Gould (86.5-percent accuracy, 447 area targets, 1,961 factors). Gould’s playoff profession is unmatched: he has made all 29 field-goal and 39 point-after makes an attempt.

Gonzalez has by no means kicked within the playoffs. However he does moonlight as a kickoff specialist, and that may be a trait the 49ers wished their kicker to have, and what they'd in Gould, somewhat than relegate that chore to punter Mitch Wishnowsky. Gonzalez has a 58-percent touchback price on kickoffs.