PALM BEACH, Fla. — After a particularly challenging 2024 NFL season for Jake Moody, Kyle Shanahan revealed the 49ers will bring in competition before the start of the offseason program.
After a season of dismal performances by the special teams unit as a whole, the team hired Brant Boyer as its special teams coordinator and Colt Anderson as his assistant.
“Yeah, we are going to bring someone else in,” Shanahan said Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting. “We weren’t going to sign a guy right away in free agency, but I know Brant and Colt are looking into some kickers throughout all of these kicking camps throughout the colleges, but we’d more likely like to add a veteran, hopefully get him in here after draft time.”
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SIGN UP HERE After making 84 percent of his field goals in his rookie season, Moody started the 2024 season only missing one field goal attempt over five games. The kicker suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 5 and missed the next three games. When Moody returned, he missed nine of his next 20 attempts.
Moody has been known to be extremely efficient in practice, including several attempts of more than 60 yards. How to make that success translate into real games is an obvious goal for him and the team.
“You have him compete every day in practice,” Shanahan explained. “You get to preseason games and that’s about all you can do. But I think when you bring in a guy, and you make it serious competition, which it will be, and he knows he’s got to beat a veteran kicker out.
“As long as we bring in a guy who is capable of taking that job, and Jake respects him, that’s what puts pressure on him, because you got to respect the guy you’re going against. And he does have to beat him out in practice.”
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San Francisco went through three different kickers during the 2024 season due to injury, and John Lynch expressed some regret in allowing Moody to return only a short time after his injury when he spoke at the NFL Scouting Combine a few weeks ago. But now the team will deal with the aftermath, likely signing a veteran kicker after the 2025 NFL Draft.
“Yeah the games will happen once the season starts, but the preseason will be there,” Shanahan said. “And when your job is on the line doing something, going against someone who is talented, you do feel that pressure and I do believe if he can overcome and beat out a capable guy, that will show us he’s ready for the season.”