SANTA CLARA — If the Warriors or Sharks had their leading scorer in each of the six seasons leave the team, it would be a pretty big deal.
But when that exact thing happened to the 49ers this offseason with kicker Robbie Gould’s exit, more attention was paid to when the team drafted his replacement.
Kickers get no respect — even when you really need them.
Kyle Shanahan knows how important they are, though. Gould’s reliability within 50 yards and ability to nail kicks in even the most adverse conditions were a significant part of the Niners coach’s offensive plan since both arrived here in 2017.
So the 49ers selected Michigan kicker Jake Moody in the third round — a ludicrously early pick to folks in the “analytics community” — to be the next Gould, a steady and reliable force.
And perhaps a bit more, too.
“[He’s] Everything we thought he was,” Niners special teams coordinator Brian Schneider said Wednesday of Moody. “Just really consistent, really even-keeled, and exactly what we hoped he’d be.”
It was Schneider who was tasked with finding Gould’s replacement this offseason, and that meant, above all else, finding someone who would not get rattled by big moments. For all of Gould’s qualities and faults, he made big-time field goals in big-time moments.
But how do you test for mental toughness in a workout environment?
Bad snappers.
Schneider chalks it up to good luck for him and terrible luck for Moody, but the draft prospect’s long snapper for his one-on-one pre-draft workout with the Niners was, according to the coach, “atrocious.”
“Great guy, love him to death, but he’s terrible at snapping,” Moody said of the Michigan tight end and emergency snapper who will remain nameless.
“I absolutely loved it,” Schneider said.
Like golf, kicking is as much a mental game as a physical one. A slight deviation in a leg swing can create a spiral of mechanics and confidence.
Only four kickers before Moody had been selected in the third round or earlier in this century. The last kicker selected on Day 2 of the draft — Roberto Aguayo, the No. 59 overall pick in 2016 — flamed out after one season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Aguayo might have been the most accurate kicker in the history of college football but the pressure of the NFL was too much for him, and Tampa Bay didn’t find out until he was on the roster, missing easy kicks in preseason games.
That’s the cautionary tale every NFL team carries with them when they’re looking to draft a kicker.
So the Niners coach leaned into the adversity of the terrible snaps. He wanted to break Moody in that workout. What’s this kid made of?
“He was frustrated, like anyone would be in a job interview where some things are out of his control,” Schneider said. “[But] I’m just looking at him, and he’s still stone-faced — really cool disposition.”
And when Schneider, sensing a make-or-break moment, called for a scramble drill kick and the snap bounced twice on the way back, what did Moody do?
“Smoked it,” Schneider said. “Just like I’ve seen on tape, so consistent with his approach and finish and trust.”
“Thankfully, he got it up at the last second,” Moody, a man of few words around the facility, said of his holder. “I didn’t kick his hand off, and I made it.”
“After that I told [Shanahan and GM John Lynch], I don’t care where you take him, this is the guy,” Schneider said. “I felt that strongly about him. That’s not my job to figure out where we should draft him. I just know I really like the talent, I really love the kid. I love everything about him, so to me, it was like I think this is the best and they have to figure that out.”
Shanahan and Lynch decided the third round was the spot — they couldn’t risk waiting a day to take him.
Another reminder: Kickers lead their teams in scoring every year.
They’re like a romantic partner — they might be temperamental, a bit of a head case, and you might complain about them to your friends, but when you don’t have a good one, you’d do just about anything to change that.
The Niners lost a good one this winter. The last thing Shanahan wants to worry about is special teams. So if he had to pay a premium to land the best kicker in the draft, so be it.
Remember: Shanahan paid Gould well over market value after the kicker’s ridiculous holdout in 2019. But no one thought about the kicker’s salary when Gould hit that game-winning 45-yard field goal amid snow, a swirling wind, sub-zero temperatures, and frozen grass at Lambeau Field in the 2021 playoffs.
Ultimately, we won’t know if Shanahan and Lynch are geniuses or reactionaries until there are fans in the stands, but if the early returns are to be believed, and they are proven correct that Moody is the real deal, no one will care where the kicker was drafted.
The Niners’ offense might look a bit different in the process, too.
I’ve long wondered how Shanahan would call plays if he had a kicker he could trust to make a 60-yard field goal.
With Gould, it was really 40 yards and in, expanding later in his career with appreciable success.
But Moody has a much bigger leg and should be just as accurate. Back to golf: Moody’s 3-wood off the tee is Gould’s driver.
There have been countless times throughout Shanahan’s tenure where he’s set up a drive for a field goal with conservative play-calling in adverse situations.
Holding penalty inside an opponent’s territory? Here come the four Rs — three runs and Robbie.
But with Moody, the Niners’ scoring range could expand all the way to the 50-yard line (and perhaps a bit beyond, wind permitting).
Does Shanahan look to go for a first down on a third-and-long now?
Does the offense open up a bit now that he has a kicker who can steal points, as opposed to merely securing them?
Overlook kickers all you want, but the permutations of this move to Moody could be massive.
And of course, that could swing in either direction.
But so far, Moody is practicing, and acting, like the kind of kicker who should be around for a long time.
The kind of kicker who, perhaps a few years from now, might end up getting some respect.
Source: www.mercurynews.com