Moody’s shaken confidence has Shanahan evaluating 49ers kicker job originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SANTA CLARA — Jake Moody’s confidence is at an all-time low after the toughest outing of his NFL career in the 49ers’ 40-34 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday night at Levi’s Stadium.
Kyle Shanahan gave Moody a vote of confidence before the game but after the second-year pro missed two field goals, an extra point and botched an on-side kick attempt, the coach confirmed he is evaluating his options.
“We already are, we’re evaluating all positions,” Shanahan said after the game. “I was just, earlier in the week, I was saying some of the things that he’s gone through this year, which are facts, just him coming back from that injury and everything. Today wasn’t a great day, by no means.”
Moody was 13 of 14 on field goal attempts before suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 5, and after he missed three games, his accuracy has faltered, as he has converted only 10 of his 18 attempts in eight games since.
The 2023 third-round draft pick’s confidence appears to be a concern.
“Definitely probably one of the lowest times in my career dating back to when I first started football,” Moody said. “Confidence, got to keep it high. You have no other choice as a kicker. You just got to keep staying confident in yourself otherwise you got nothing. Got to stay confident and go on from here.”
Moody against the Lions missed both 51- and 58-yard attempts, which aren’t guarantees, even for the NFL’s best kickers. Missing the extra point and not giving the 49ers a chance at recovering an on-side might be more of an issue.
“Missing the 51-yard field goal,” Shanahan said. “The 58-yard field goal, that’s just a got-to-have-it situation and not going to be too hard on him for that far of a kick. But I know he’s capable of making that and it looked like he got the distance, I think he just missed it.
“But obviously, that extra point, I don’t know how the snap and the hold were, we’ll look at that one when we see the tape, but you’ve got to make that extra point.”
Moody told reporters after the game that there were no issues with the snap or hold but that he just did not hit the ball well.
“It’s next kick mentality regardless of what happened prior,” Moody said. “Make it, miss it, game-winner, game-losing kick, you got to move on to the next kick because that’s the only one that matters.”
The 49ers likely won’t make any moves regarding the kicking position until the offseason, so Moody will have one more chance to redeem himself before the end of the season.
Moody could use a confidence boost heading into the offseason.