Here's the Kicker
49ers might be kicking themselves but what is the reason?
Everyone has some sort of pet peeve. Some people hate it when others chew too loudly, while others don’t like it when you have to repeat what you said more than once. 49ers fans' biggest pet peeve just happened to be Jake Moody.
Ah, yes, the kicker that was promised. With the 100th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, the 49ers selected Moody to be the franchise kicker after their previous kicker, Robbie Gould, announced his retirement. Throughout his college career, Moody didn’t miss a single extra point attempt. Extra points should be easy to accomplish when it’s only a 20-yard attempt.
In 2022, his stats were pretty impressive between the 20-49 yard distance while only missing two kicks in that area. Kicks from 50 yards or more are where the problem lies. Moody only made four successful kicks out of 10 attempts from that distance. Despite all of that, he did break a few records with the Michigan Wolverines. In 2022, he broke the single-season scoring record (138 points), and throughout his college career, he broke the all-time scoring record (355 points). Moody currently has the longest field goal attempt made (59 yards) for the program.
Moody’s rookie season wasn’t so bad in retrospect. He only missed four field goals out of 25 attempts and only missed one extra point all season. You wouldn’t think that’s so bad, but here’s the kicker (pun intended), his field goal percentage (84%) was actually below league average. To be fair, though, his 25 attempts were ranked 27th out of 41 qualifying kickers, so it’s not bad. He also set the 49ers franchise record for longest kick successfully made (57 yards) and broke NFL records of longest field goal made in a Super Bowl and a postseason game (55 yards) for only about 30 minutes until Kansas City Chief, Harrison Butker broke that record (57 yards).
In 2024, Moody started off the season by tying a franchise record of six made field goals in a single game against the New York Jets in Week 1. Everything goes downhill from there, though, like in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams when Moody missed a clutch 55-yard field goal attempt late in the 4th quarter that would’ve put the 49ers up by 10. The Rams would go on to win the game 27-24. During the Week 5 contest against the Arizona Cardinals, Moody suffered a right high ankle sprain, which caused him to miss three straight weeks. He returned in Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but was never the same again. Since returning to the starting lineup, Moody would go on to make 11 field goals out of 20 attempts. Before his injury, he made 13 out of 14 attempts. Injuries can hinder any player, especially kickers on their kicking leg. It was pretty telling that his confidence wasn’t there anymore either with all of those misses.
The 49ers brought in free agent Greg Joseph to compete with Moody for the starting position in case his confidence was still dwindling from the previous season. This will be Joseph’s seventh team he has played for in his career. Cycling through three different teams last year, Joseph is as reliable as it gets for makeable field goals under 40 years, going 72/73 in his lifetime. Once the range extends past that, his accuracy drops considerably, being why he hasn’t stuck with a team lately. Moody has the better leg for range, but he’ll have to shore up his general consistency to beat out the baseline for what Joseph sets.
Moody has stated that he is trying a new approach at his kicking game compared to college and previous NFL years. Fans will be curious if this will be better for him or if it’s better that he gets kicked off the team.