The San Francisco 49ers’ Week 1 game against the Seattle Seahawks was full of surprises — we narrowed them down to four. The least surprising thing we saw was the inconsistency of the special teams units. No matter who the coordinator is, it’s been a struggle. Needless to say, Brant Boyer is off to a rough start.
So when the Niners parted ways with Jake Moody, many wondered what took so long. A game-winning preseason kick masked an earlier miss and a kickoff out of bounds in that game. It was fool’s
gold at the time. Unless you can’t talk about this team without wearing rose-colored glasses, you knew that Moody would cost the 49ers a game at some point this year, likely in September.
Well, he tried in Week 1.
Kyle Shanahan shared an experience from earlier in his coaching profession when discussing what ultimately led to Moody being waived:
“Just I think by where it got to, there wasn’t that much of a decision. It’s always tough with that, especially when you have a talented guy. I have some experience with that in my past. I remember when I was in Washington, I didn’t have that experience, and our kicker lost us a game and remember how adamant I was when I went into the head coach’s office and said, ‘you need to make a change, like what are we doing?’ He snapped at me and said ‘you don’t know kickers, this guy’s really talented. We’ve got to give him some time. I’m not going to watch him go be a Pro Bowler for someone else.’ Then two weeks later, he missed a kick and lost us a game. So, I felt like validated. I was like ‘I told you,’ which I was right for like a day because then the next year, he went on to be a Pro Bowler and the highest paid kicker in the League for the next three years for another team. So those are things that you kind of think about. It’s tough with a kicker. I think Jake’s got a chance to have a hell of a future. He is that talented. But, when it gets to that spot where it is, we all know how last year ended, we know how everyone was looking at him and obviously when it gets to that point, you can see it affecting him from a mental game. Then you don’t how much choice. You’ve got to move on, and hopefully Eddy will come in here and do the job.”
Shanahan was asked what the team liked about Moody’s replacement, Eddy Pineiro. He pointed to Pineiro’s history, how accurate he’s been, and his experience, all while being the best available option.
Did that mean it was a difficult conversation to have with Moody when it came time to let him go? Not in this business, Shanahan said:
“I don’t think it’s that hard to have because I think it is what it is. I mean, I think he knows he wouldn’t disagree with us. I mean, he’d have to say why, but it looked like he lost his confidence and he wasn’t kicking the ball well enough and it was way too inconsistent. So once that happens and when your stroke in golf is changing all the time and you’re trying to fix things, trying to try not to miss it’s very hard to succeed at this level that way. There wasn’t anything I had to beat around the bush on. He knew that. To a degree, I think this will give him a chance to move on and hopefully find a place where he can get his swag back in that way.”
It’s still a business. When you don’t perform, there are consequences. Taking a kicker in the third round is astronomically high. Anything under 90 percent would have meant Moody wasn’t performing up to his draft status. In hindsight, he would have needed Robbie Gould circa 2018. Moody wasn’t close to that, which is why he’s no longer on the roster. That doesn’t mean his career is over, but he left he 49ers no choice.
