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NFL NFL Season is Underway SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Young kickers usually struggle in the NFL. Kickers who are drafted rarely remain with their original team. And the select few drafted early, well, they often have the roughest time of all. Jake Moody’s brief, bumpy stint with the San Francisco 49ers — the 2023 third-round pick was waived this week after an uneven Week 1 performance in Seattle — shouldn’t be a surprise. In fact, as thorny as his NFL introduction was, it went more smoothly than any of his highly drafted peers’ over the last decade. Advertisement Roberto Aguayo, taken in the second round (No. 59) by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2016, was cut before his second season, after he finished last in the league in field goal percentage and was 4-of-11 on kicks of 40 yards or longer as a rookie. The whiff was so conspicuous that teams shied away from taking kickers as early as even the fourth round until 2022, when the Cleveland Browns drafted Cade York at No. 124. He was also cut after one season and is currently a free agent. Then came Moody, who every special teams expert agreed was the best prospect in recent memory. Unlike Aguayo, a Florida native who kicked at Florida State, Moody grew up kicking off frozen fields in Michigan, then became a high-pressure ace at the University of Michigan. Former Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh referred to the kicker as “Money Moody” and called him “a Michigan legend. ” He was the rare youngster with a talented leg and a steely disposition. Wind, weather, hostile crowds, long-distance kicks — you couldn’t faze him, even when he first arrived on campus. “You don’t see a freshman kicker just come in and be good, which I think bodes well, ” Harbaugh said in 2023. “Because you don’t see a lot of rookie kickers in the NFL be real good. It usually takes some time. There’s some history and evidence here that says Jake’s gonna be good right away. ” Even Moody’s rare calm, however, was no match for the NFL. After going a respectable 21-of-25 on field goals as a rookie, he struggled in the back half of the 2024 season, which the 49ers said was because they allowed him to return too quickly from a severe Week 5 high-ankle sprain. Moody was wobbly in the recent preseason, then clanged a 27-yard attempt off the left upright in a tight game Sunday in Seattle. “When it gets to that point, you can see it affecting him from a mental (standpoint), ” coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday. “Then you don’t have much choice. You’ve got to move on. ” Joe Nedney, who kicked for 14 seasons, the final six in San Francisco, said he looks for two things when watching NFL kickers. Advertisement The first is mechanical. He said that, like a lot of young kickers, Moody has flexible hips, which means he sometimes over-rotates on his attempts. When Moody misses, he tends to pull the ball. "Older kickers — maybe because they're not as flexible — have a more compact swing, " he said. He also examines how they react to a miss. He said kickers have to convey a sense that they're unbothered, that they'll nail the next attempt. "And with Jake, I think we all teetered on, 'Ooh, do I need to be worried? ’" Nedney said. "When Jake missed, he didn't have a demeanor of, 'It's OK, I've got it. ’" All young kickers face challenges, beginning with sky-high expectations. When Nedney entered the NFL in 1995, kickers made 77. 4 percent of their field goals. Last season, it was 85. 7 percent, the third-highest all-time, with eight full-time kickers finishing with percentages in the 90s. Eddy Piñeiro, signed this week to replace Moody, has a lifetime average of 88. 1 percent, the fourth-highest ever. "If you're in the low 80s nowadays, it's like, 'What's wrong? ’" said 49ers punter Thomas Morstead, a 17-year veteran. "Then, when you have a rookie kicker that gets drafted super high? Those already irrational expectations can become even more irrational. " Brandon Kornblue, an ex-Michigan kicker who has worked with several NFL kickers, including Moody and Piñeiro, said those lofty expectations lead to impatience. Kornblue cited Daniel Carlson, a fifth-round pick by the Minnesota Vikings in 2018. He went 1-for-1 on field goals in his debut that season. The following week, he missed one attempt in regulation and two in overtime in a 29-29 tie with the Green Bay Packers. He was waived the next day — to the benefit of the Raiders. They picked him up, he went 16-of-17 the rest of that season, was a first-team All-Pro in 2022 and has been a Raider ever since. Advertisement "A quarterback doesn't get one or two games to show what he can do, " Kornblue said. "The leash is much shorter for a specialist. " Another challenge for young kickers is that only a handful of teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, employ a full-time kicking specialist. The 49ers' special teams coaches — coordinator Brant Boyer, assistant Colt Anderson and quality control coach Ronald Blair III — are former defensive players, with Boyer and Anderson having excelled at kick coverage during their NFL careers. During the offseason, kickers can work with a specialist like Kornblue. But once training camps start, they're on their own. "To me, it's one of the most baffling things that still exists in the NFL, " Kornblue said. "In the NFL, it's unlimited resources, it's unlimited coaching staffs. They should be able to put somebody in place there. " Finally, being drafted early adds another layer of pressure to a young kicker. Back in April 2023, the 49ers were immediately criticized for bucking the trend and choosing Moody in the third round. Even his preseason attempts were picked apart by reporters and critical fans. A 2024 encounter with Deebo Samuel, sparked by a series of Moody misses in Tampa, only intensified the spotlight. Entering the NFL the way most kickers do — going undrafted — brings its own challenges and certainly isn't easy but in some ways is a better approach. Undrafted kickers often find themselves on the tryout circuit, meaning they're one of five or so kickers brought in for a one-day audition when an incumbent kicker struggles or is injured. Nedney, for example, did that early in his career after going undrafted out of San Jose State. He might get a call to kick in front of Miami Dolphins coaches one week and for the Raiders' the next, usually doing so along with the same batch of eager competitors. Advertisement When Nedney failed to land a gig in his first two seasons, it led to a surprisingly harsh phone call from his agent, Bob La Monte. "The phone's gonna stop ringing if you don't do something about it, " La Monte told him. Nedney remembers being incensed. After all, wasn't his agent supposed to be sympathetic and supportive? But he soon realized La Monte was right. The excuses he'd been making for himself at the tryouts — no one was accustomed to holding for a left-footed kicker, the field was a mess, it was windy — didn't matter. It was up to him. "It hardens you, " Nedney said of the high-tension tryouts. "You start to realize how fickle the job is. " That competition was missing for Aguayo, York and Moody during their rookie seasons, something Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said he regretted about the Aguayo experience. "When we took him, we essentially anointed him, " Licht told Sports Illustrated's Peter King in 2017. "If I could do it again, I would have gone back and brought in competition to challenge him. I look back on that a lot. Roberto is a great kid, but the magnitude of that position, and the pressure on a 21-year-old — his performance is affecting the lives of men who have families to support. That got tough. " The 49ers didn't have any true competition for Moody, either. This past spring, they brought in veteran Greg Joseph to push Moody, but it didn't end up being much of a battle. Joseph was released after nine practices because the 49ers were beset by injuries and couldn't afford to keep two kickers. At the time, Joseph had been more accurate than Moody in their training camp competition. Perhaps that starts to explain why 20 of the players currently handling kicking duties for their teams went undrafted. Or why, since 2000, drafted kickers have made 82. 1 percent of their field goals, while undrafted ones have made 83. 3 percent. That is, it wasn't easy for the undrafted kickers; they had to earn their spots. Advertisement The question now becomes whether Moody turns out like Carlson, a gem for a different club from the one that drafted him (he is joining the Chicago Bears' practice squad), or like Aguayo and perhaps York — never to be heard from again. "They are tough decisions, because (Moody) is a very talented young man and likely to go on elsewhere and have success, " general manager John Lynch said Thursday on KNBR radio. "And I hope that's the case for him because he's a great kid, and he handled it well. It's tough, but you've got to make decisions in the best interest of the team. " (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Ethan Miller, Grant Halverson, Jason Miller / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Matt Barrows is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the 49ers. He joined The Athletic in 2018 and has covered the 49ers since 2003. He was a reporter with The Sacramento Bee for 19 years, four of them as a Metro reporter. Before that he spent two years in South Carolina with The Hilton Head Island Packet. Follow Matt on Twitter @Matt Barrows