San Francisco 49ers kicker Jake Moody missed yet another field goal in Sunday’s loss to the Miami Dolphins, which left coach Kyle Shanahan sounding more frustrated than he ever has at the second-year player. Moody badly missed a 41-yard attempt in the third quarter of the Niners’ 29-17 defeat, pulling the kick from the right hash mark and missing wide to the left badly. Everything about the kick procedure looked clean on the CBS broadcast, too.
Shanahan didn’t hide his frustrations in the moments after the miss, flinging the tablet he was carrying down to the ground. (Though perhaps the frustration was adding up from a procedural penalty on wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, which took away a big play for the 49ers.)
It’s been a trying few months for Moody since returning from the ankle injury he suffered while trying to make a tackle on a kickoff, as he’s gone just 10-for-16 in seven games. In his first game back, in Tampa Bay, three straight missed kicks resulted in star receiver Deebo Samuel confronting him on the sideline and an ensuing scuffle between Samuel and Taybor Pepper. (Moody recovered from those misses to make a buzzer-beating kick to beat the Bucs.) The Michigan grad also missed two field goals in the game in Buffalo, though the snowy conditions made those misses a bit more forgivable.
Still, when a team spends a top-100 pick on a kicker, the expectation is for the player to be dynamite in any conditions. After a strong rookie campaign (albeit with a weird preseason and one key miss in the regular season), Moody has only made 76.7% (23-for-30) of his field goals in 2024. Only six kickers have been worse this season.
Shanahan has publicly supported Moody through the struggles in 2024 up until Sunday, when he sounded fed up. “It wasn’t good out there, missing that kick,” Shanahan told reporters after the game. “I don’t know what exactly happened on the snap and the hold, but that’s one he’s got to make.”
The 49ers were officially eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, leaving just two games left in the 2024 season to decide if they stick with Moody or find another kicker.
