Kicker Kombat returns with Jake Moody and Greg Joseph squaring off. Moody has 49ers special teams coordinator Brant Boyer’s support, but Joseph has been slightly more efficient. 49ers fans—what would you do?
So Jake Moody didn’t have a good 2024. We know that much. We also know the 49ers have brought in veteran kicker Greg Joseph as competition during training camp.
Here’s the problem: Moody has had solid training camps in the past. He’s kicked well when it probably didn’t matter. So what happens if that’s all we see again?
This week, during the 49ers’ mandatory minicamp, the kicker statistics have been neck and neck, with Joseph having a slight edge in the efficiency department. Moody went six for seven on Tuesday, while on Wednesday, Greg Joseph was perfect, hitting all seven of his kicks.
So one missed practice kick from Moody, who we’ve seen plenty of on game day, and a flawless performance from Joseph, who…well, you tell me. If Moody keeps the pressure on, this will stay neck and neck. And even if he “wins” the job, then what?
And for all intents and purposes, it might be Moody again. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco said on KNBR’s Papa and Silver that Moody would essentially have to go out of his way to lose the competition:
“I think Jake Moody would have to, I don’t know necessarily implode, but he would just have to give off the bad vibes that they would feel like it’s necessary to move on. This is kind of a little bit of a stretch, but I remember back when Alex Smith was going to be a free agent and heading into the 2011 season. Everybody on the planet felt he needed a fresh start. It just didn’t happen with the 49ers; all the coaching changes, all the offensvie coordiantor changes. He just needed to go somewhere else and reinvent himself. His family was telling him that, everybody was telling him that. Jim Harbaugh came in and said “hey look you can have your fresh start. Your fresh start can be right here right now with me and this coaching staff.
“And that’s kind of the way I view the Jake Moody thing too. For the longest time last season, late in the year when we saw his body language and he talked about his confidence being shot. You just felt like, “Man this guy, he just needs a fresh start. He might be a good kicker in the NFL, but I’m not sure it could be with the 49ers.” That’s the way I felt.
“Well, what’s happened since then is they brought in a new special teams coordinator who pretty much has carte blanche over that aspect of the team. And the new special teams coordinator Brant Boyer brings in a new long snapper, a new punter/holder, and all of these guys to help on special teams and all of the sudden you look at this now and you go, “Well that might be Jake Moody’s fresh start, because at the end of the day, I think Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch to a degree have kind of washed their hands of Jake Moody in the sense that, “we drafted him, we brought him here,but now it’s out of our hands; Brant Boyer was brought in to run special teams. If he thinks that the team is better off with Jake Moody, we’re gonna roll with it. And if he doesn’t? We’ll roll with that too.”
“I think in a lot of ways it has given Jake Moody a new lease on life with the 49ers. And I do think he’s not the overwhelming favorite, but certainly the clear favorite to win that job.”
Now, there has been more than just Moody kicking a bunch of field goals all over again. Make adjustments by transitioning from a three-step to a two-step kicking routine. It’s also important to note that 49ers special teams coordinator Brant Boyer has been publicly positive towards Moody.
That just begs the question of what the 49ers should do with the position. We have already discussed what the plan was for 2025, but what would you do? Anything drastic? Do you think they just let the best man win in this competition into the season and then let the loser go before Week 1, or get creative? And yes, hopefully, the fact that we are discussing what the 49ers should do with the kicker position rather than a lengthy contract holdout isn’t a lost opportunity for anyone.
Would you go a bit further? Maybe having a second kicker on the roster in the regular season or practice squad, ready at a moment’s notice, the moment Moody starts struggling again?
Some might say burning a roster spot on a second kicker is pointless. But is it riskier to keep Joseph now—or roll the dice on signing someone worse midseason if Moody struggles again?