All 49ers

The 49ers Sign a Veteran Kicker to Compete with Jake Moody

This was inevitable.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 15, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Washington Commanders place kicker Greg Joseph (46) misses a field goal during the second half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
Dec 15, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Washington Commanders place kicker Greg Joseph (46) misses a field goal during the second half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

This was inevitable.

The 49ers just signed veteran kicker Greg Joseph to compete with former third-round pick Jake Moody.

This is a competition Moody would win easily if he didn't have the yips, but it's unclear how solid he is mentally after missing so many kicks the first two seasons of his career.

Meanwhile, Joseph, 30, is on his seventh NFL team. Last season alone, he played for three teams, including the Jets whose special teams coach at the time was Brant Boyer, who now is the 49ers' special teams coach. So that's the 49ers' connection to Joseph.

There's a reason Joseph has bounced around the league so much since he entered it in 2018 -- he's not that good. Last season, he made just 80 percent of his field goal attempts, which was below the league average of 84 percent. Meanwhile, Moody made a grotesque 70.6 percent of his field goal attempts. Granted, in 2023 he made 84 percent which is average and better than Joseph.

So Moody can win this competition if he has his mind right. But he has been the subject of so much scrutiny simply because the 49ers reached for him and drafted him in Round 3. It's extremely hard for a kicker to live up to that draft status. If he were to go to another team, he'd be just another kicker. He'd have nothing to live up to.

That's probably why the 49ers hang onto Moody. They know he might kick well somewhere else just like he kicked well in college. Unfortunately for the 49ers, he probably never will kick well for them.

Get ready for the Greg Joseph Era, baby.

Read more

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News