Vizcaino Hits 3 FGs in NFL Debut, But 49ers Squander it against Seahawks

The former Husky kicker does his job against Seattle, but San Francisco coughs up the game.

Dan Raley | Jan 3, 2021

The last anyone in Seattle saw of University of Washington kicker Tristan Vizcaino, he was launching five kickoffs and four extra-point kicks against Penn State in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl.

Then the jack-of-all-trades kicker disappeared into NFL free-agency purgatory.

On Sunday, Vizcaino made his pro debut with the San Francisco 49ers against the Seahawks in Arizona after a long and arduous trek through practice squads and reserve/future contracts, where he was signed and cut repeatedly by various franchises.

An emergency fill-in for the 49ers because of pandemic issues, Vizcaino was as cool as could be in his first pro outing by converting all three of his field-goal attempts from 36, 47 and 33 yards, plus he threw in an extra-point kick, but short-handed San Francisco coughed up the lead he provided and lost 26-23.

To get to this point as the main man on the tee against the Seahawks, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound kicker from La Verne, California, was waived by Cincinnati, Dallas, Cincinnati again and Minnesota over the past two years, with his most recent release coming from the Vikings on December 15.

Vizcaino, 24, signed with San Francisco on Friday, two days after the 49ers put regular kicker Robbie Gould on the COVID/reserve list. He gave his new team a 9-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter, which grew to 16-6 before the Seahawks rallied and won with a late rush.

For the Huskies, Vizcaino played in 2014-17 and connected on 12 of 20 field-goal attempts and punted 56 times for a 40.6-yard average.

Tristan Vizcaino kicked for the UW from 2014 to '17. — Tristan Vizcaino played at UW from 2014 to '17 / USA TODAY Sports

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Published Jan 3, 2021

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.