What a week for Jake Moody. The San Francisco 49ers kicker returned from injury after missing a month, only to miss his first three kicks during his team’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday.
After his third miss, Moody found himself part of a sideline scrum in which WR Deebo Samuel told him to “lock in.” Moody’s long-snapper, Taybor Pepper, took exception to the wide receiver’s comment and barked back. Samuel didn’t like Pepper’s response and shoved him in the throat, which led to more yelling on the 49ers sideline.
But not long after that exchange, the 49ers offense moved the ball into field goal range and Moody was able to hit the game-winner.
In a matter of minutes, Moody went from being the fans’ choice for villain to hero. The question is, which part will Moody play from here on out? And where is Moody, mentally, moving forward?
49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan sat down with Greg Papa for this week’s “49ers Game Plan” on NBC Sports Bay Area. The two discussed Moody’s week, as well as his state of mind.
“I think he’s great right now,” Shanahan said. “He’s had a hell of a week. It might be a weird way of looking at it, but I think it was a perfect first game back. You have to go through everything possible and playing in the league, if you have the talent, there’s a big mental part of this game, and you got to go through some adversity, and you got to fight through it, and when you do that and you show you can fight through it, that’s what allows people to be successful throughout the year.
“He’s been a little late to the party because he’s been out for the last month, but he got all that done in one game. For him to miss those kicks, put that pressure on himself like he did, and then come back and hit the game-winner and win that game for us was huge.”
During the game, many fans were ready to move on from Moody. Even after the game, after Moody had kicked the game-winner, some were still calling for the 49ers to release the second-year kicker. But the 49ers don’t seem ready to give up on Moody.
On KNBR radio this week, GM John Lynch said, “We didn’t blink. No, we’ve got a lot of faith in this kid. He had a rough day, and we all have rough days. If the first day you have a rough day, people give up on you, that’s not how we operate. We do have tough decisions to make from time to time, but there’s a lot of context to put into these things, and Jake has earned a lot of respect from this organization.”
Whether fans like it or not, the 49ers seem content to stick with Moody. And to be fair, Moody had only missed one field goal in 2024, before his three misses in Tampa. He is also a perfect 14 for 14 on extra-point attempts this season.
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