A missed field goal attempt by Anders Carlson helped propel the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl last season. On Sunday, Carlson will play for the 49ers when they play the Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch of the 2023 NFL Championship Game.

San Francisco signed the former Auburn kicker to its practice squad on Tuesday after kicker Jake Moody suffered an ankle injury in a 24-23 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 6 and missed Sunday’s 36-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks missed. San Francisco brought in Matthew Wright as the kicker for that game, but he suffered a shoulder injury.

The 49ers placed Wright on injured reserve Saturday and signed Carlson from the practice squad.

“(Wright) is hurt worse than we expected, so he can’t come back,” San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan said. “And Jake Moody is still suffering week-to-week with a severe ankle sprain, so I don’t expect him next week either, but hopefully after the bye.”

Moody and Wright were injured while making tackles on kickoffs. Shanahan was asked if the 49ers would allow Carlson to make a kickoff tackle against the Chiefs.

“That’s definitely allowed,” Shanahan said, “but only in an emergency, so I hope he doesn’t attack anything.” However, if you decide to simply forego a touchdown or not, we always choose to not to give up the touchdown. But hopefully he can stay out of danger.”

Carlson had been a free agent since August 27, when the Green Bay Packers released him after serving as the team’s kicker through the 2023 season.

In Green Bay, an offseason/training camp/preseason kicking competition took place between Carlson and Greg Joseph, who had been the Minnesota Vikings’ kicker for the previous three seasons. But when it came time to finalize the regular-season roster, the Packers cut Carlson and Joseph and claimed Brayden Narveson after the Tennessee Titans waived him. This week, Green Bay waived Narveson and replaced him with veteran Brandon McManus.

Carlson joined the Packers as a sixth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He replaced 16-year veteran Mason Crosby as Green Bay’s kicker and became the first rookie in league history to score a field goal in 17 regular-season games. But factoring in the playoffs, he also had the most missed extra points in the NFL in 2023 with six and total missed kicks with 13.

In his first NFL season, Carlson hit 27 of 33 field goal attempts and 34 of 39 extra point attempts in the regular season, as well as 2 of 3 field goal attempts and 7 of 8 extra point attempts in two postseason games.

Carlson’s post-season field goal shot came on a 41-yard attempt with 6:18 left in a second-round game against San Francisco on January 20. The 49ers responded with a 12-play, 69-yard drive capped by running back Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 67 seconds to play. San Francisco took a 24-21 lead instead of tying the game, and that was the end result.