For five years, it was the same disheartening scenario. Giorgio Tavecchio would intrigue a team just enough to make its preseason roster and go through training camp, only to get cut. Sometimes it was earlier, sometimes it was later. But always he’d find himself at home, watching yet another NFL season start without him.

“Close,” Tavecchio said when asked if he’d ever considered calling it quits. “You can’t imagine how close.” Oh, what he would have missed if he had. A day after being signed from the practice squad, the 27-year-old rookie kicked four field goals Sunday, including a pair of 52-yarders, to seal the Oakland Raiders’ 26-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans. Tavecchio is the first kicker since the 1970 merger to make two 50-yard field goals in his debut and joins Sebastian Janikowski as the only Raider with two 50-yarders.