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Jake Moody Could be a Big Problem for the 49ers

Can the 49ers count on him to make field goals under pressure during the playoffs?

Grant Cohn

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The 49ers wanted a younger, cheaper kicker this offseason. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

They chose not to re-sign 40-year-old Robbie Gould, one of the most accurate kickers ever, who cost the 49ers more than $5 million last season. Instead, they spent a third-round draft pick on 23-year-old Jake Moody, who costs them less than $1 million this year.

And on Sunday in Cleveland, Moody cost the 49ers the game. He missed two field goals, including a 41-yarder that would have given the 49ers a one-point lead with just a few seconds left in the fourth quarter.

 “I guess I did not judge the wind correctly," Moody explained. "Stuff like that happens and I just have to move on from it and worry about the next kick. The last one, I just did not hit it great. It is unfortunate that it happened then. Like I said, I just need to worry about the next kick at this point.”

I'm sure the 49ers are worried about his next kick, too.

Was it the wind that bothered Moody, or the pressure of kicking in a close game? Or both? Can the 49ers count on him to make field goals under pressure during the playoffs? Because Gould never has missed a field goal in the postseason. If Moody keeps missing, the 49ers might have to call Gould and make him an offer he can't refuse.

"Nothing I can do about it now," Moody said. "Obviously, I wish I could get another crack at it, but that is not how it works. That is what I signed up for at my position and just onto the next one.” 

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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