The San Francisco 49ers announced on Tuesday that the team has waived kicker Jonathan Brown. He became expendable after the 49ers signed veteran kicker Robbie Gould to a multi-year deal on July 15.
Gould, who spent the past two seasons with San Francisco, was involved in a monthslong contract standoff with the 49ers before agreeing on a new deal. The team used the non-exclusive franchise tag on the kicker on February 26. Two months later, Gould grew tired of the lengthy contract negotiations and requested a trade.
The 49ers report to training camp on Friday and Gould will be among those in Santa Clara.
Brown was initially signed to a two-year deal on March 8. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals on May 8, 2016. Brown spent time on and off the Bengals roster and practice squad over the next three years and connected on all six of his field-goal attempts during the 2018 preseason before ultimately being waived on September 1, 2018.
"Jon Brown's doing well," special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said in June. "Yeah, he's working his tail off. He's got a strong leg. The thing about Jon is he has to just develop as a kicker, which everybody had to do, even Robbie had to do. Everybody has to do that until they get their chance.
"He's done a phenomenal job up until this point. But again, he's still got a long way to go, as we all do. We all work, and we've all got a long way to go."
Brown played college football for Louisville from 2012 through 2015 after transferring from Kentucky in 2011.