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You thought this was the summer when the 49ers would spend an excess amount of energy and concentration on the kicking game.
You figured Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch would embrace the competitive drama of Jake Moody vs. Greg Joseph through a long camp and the preseason and come out with a clear and confidence-generating winner.
You knew they’re not really built to prioritize the kickers. That’s just not who the 49ers are under Shanahan and Lynch, and they’ve proved it over the years.
But this summer, why not? Shanahan and new special teams coach Brant Boyer set up a public competition. They organized it well. They stopped practice a handful of times to watch Moody and Joseph go kick for kick. Star players acknowledged that they were watching carefully.
It was ... working, right?
The 49ers ended it Monday with a dull anti-climax: Due to an injury wave and depth-chart crunch, Joseph was released, and Moody was the one left standing.
“I would’ve loved to keep him longer, allowed them to play that out longer, but just we had 13 guys out of practice today,” Shanahan said after Monday’s practice. “We’ve got five guys on PUP. It’s just too many [injured] people to have that luxury.
“It’s awesome to have two kickers, allow them to battle. But they’re not guys who really take reps. We need more people to take reps for us.”
It’s understandable. When a team is scrambling to find healthy bodies just to finish practice, it isn’t fun for a coach to see an extra kicker lounging around the sidelines during 11-on-11 drills. Teams have priorities.
But one of the reasons the 49ers are in this situation now — logically without total belief in their kicker and with a recent history of awful special teams (predating Boyer) — is that Shanahan and Lynch clearly prioritize 20 other things above the kicking game.
That was why a true kicking competition would’ve meant something — because it was so different from what the 49ers have done lately and because it was fairly necessary.
If Joseph had survived the test, the 49ers would have had a new kicker who bested their shaky incumbent from the past two seasons. If Moody had won, he would’ve proved something under pressure that was not put to him in previous summers. He wouldn’t have been gifted the job.
But Moody remains on scholarship after the 49ers drafted him in the third round in 2023, making him one of the highest-drafted kickers in decades. Shanahan drafted Moody so he wouldn’t have to worry about the kicker again for 10 years. Guess what: The 49ers have had to worry about the kicker a lot the past two seasons, and now into Year 3.
Yes, Shanahan made it clear Monday that kickers are always under scrutiny and always have to perform well to keep their jobs. It follows that the 49ers could move on from Moody if he has another erratic preseason — Joseph, please stay by your phone — or stumbles during the season.
But Moody wasn’t the one who was released Monday. He has the job this week because he’s still the 49ers’ automatic choice. Maybe he’ll kick like it this season. Maybe he’ll be a Pro Bowler. The 49ers have treated him like a future Pro Bowler for a while now, so it’s definitely time for it.
Of course, Moody is extremely talented. You absolutely can see it in practice, where he has always looked like one of the best kickers in the league. But when those kicks have been moved into stadiums during real games, he has been one of the most erratic kickers going.
So the whole point of this camp and preseason, I thought, was to juice up the practice and preseason kicks to an approximate level of game pressure. No more guaranteed job for Moody. Even up the competition between him and Joseph.
That would’ve been the best way to play this out and the surest way for Shanahan, Lynch, and the rest of the locker room to feel assured by the result.
But it ended Monday, more than a month before the start of the regular season, when the 49ers showed that they have several higher priorities than making sure their kicking game is the best it can possibly be. It’s fair football decision-making. It also might be something to remember the next time a kick goes wide at the wrong moment.