May 27, 2025Updated May 30, 2025 6:32 am GMT+7
Jake Moody can’t just pretend that last year didn’t happen. In what was a frustrating season for the San Francisco 49ers, whose Super Bowl hangover consisted of 11 losses and even more injuries, Moody was the exclamation mark, as the kicker missed kick after kick down the stretch following his return from a high ankle sprain.
But Moody can erase a key step as he looks to regain his footing for the team that drafted him in the third round two years ago. He wasn’t comfortable just blaming the ankle injury for his struggle, so he changed his approach from taking three steps before a kick to two steps.
“It’s been going great,” Moody said in a phone interview. “Obviously, when you have been doing something since the sixth grade, it was definitely challenging at the start. I had to keep telling myself to stick with it.”
That change was back in March, but Moody got the hang of it after a couple of weeks and is ready for the 49ers’ offseason workouts. After watching Moody miss nine of 20 field-goal attempts the last nine games, the 49ers have brought in veteran kicker Greg Joseph to compete against Moody.
New 49ers special teams coordinator Brant Boyer, though, is expecting Moody to bounce back.
“There isn’t a special teams coach in this league that didn’t have him rated number one coming out (of college),” Boyer said two weeks ago. “He’s as talented of a kid as it gets. The injury issue had a lot to do with it. If the kid gets his mind right, which I think he’s doing, I think he’ll do a heck of a job for us. I really do.”
Moody connected on 13 of his first 14 field-goal attempts before he tried to make a tackle on a kickoff in a Week 5 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. He instead sprained his ankle, missed the next three games and was never the same.
“I felt like I was kicking the ball the best I have in my entire life,” Moody said. “And then … it sucks, but that’s how the NFL goes — you try to make a tackle and get a high ankle sprain. After that injury, I lost that rhythm I was in. And once you lose the rhythm, it’s tough to get back into it.”
Much like Shakira’s hips, Moody’s feet didn’t lie. He missed three kicks in his first game back, two out of three attempts in Week 13 and then hit rock bottom in a 40-34 Week 17 loss to the Detroit Lions — when Moody missed two field goals and an extra point. Yeah, do the math…
“It’s unacceptable to be kicking the way I was the second half of the year,” Moody said. “I don’t know if I lost any confidence, but stuff always creeps into your head, especially after missing a bunch of kicks.
“But those kicks are irrelevant now. It’s in the past, and I like to have a one-kick mentality, as in the next kick. Right now, I’ve been kicking the ball really well, so I feel like I’m in a good head space.”
That started back in March, when Moody hit a practice field in Naples, Fla., with longtime kicking coach Brandon Kornblue. They have been together since Moody was in middle school and the usual ball-contact drills soon turned to something else. They started tweaking his stance and how far back he was from the ball and then got rid of the third jab step.
“You have to be careful when you change something like that, because he had been so successful for so long with the three steps,” Kornblue said in a phone interview.
Kornblue thinks that while most young kickers use three steps, about half of the NFL’s kickers use two because they have strong legs and can afford to trade in a little power for better accuracy.
“Jake and I had talked about doing this in the past, but because he was kicking so well, I didn’t feel like it was smart,” Kornblue said. “But then with the injury and all that, he felt comfortable with the change.”
Moody also turned to former 49ers kicker Robbie Gould, who agreed that the change made sense.
“I felt like I’ve had some inconsistencies with my first jab step,” Moody said. “So I figured if I just get rid of that step altogether and I just take two steps instead of the three, it’s less room for error.”
There are fewer worries about planting his foot in a different spot, which will help his consistency.
“There are some things that, technically, you have to adjust,” Kornblue said. “You do lose a little bit of power — how much varies from guy to guy — but you’re trying to improve your consistency and accuracy. That being said, he is still hitting the ball 65 to 70 yards.”
Jake Moody says he’s in a good place mentally now after last season’s struggles shook his confidence. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
Moody has more time to see the ball after it’s snapped because there is less running to do, and he thinks he is only losing a yard or two in distance.
“The goal is more consistency because at the end of the day, that’s what keeps you in the NFL,” Moody said. “Plus, it was nice to have a bit of a change, something to set my mind to. Not to distract me, but to have a new focus, I guess. Something to put all my energy and focus into.”
While Kornblue doesn’t think Moody has ever struggled before last year’s injury — “he has been so mentally strong for so long” — Moody points to the 2020 COVID-shortened season where he missed three of four attempts for Michigan.
“Last season is just something to build off of,” Moody said. “In college, I had my worst season the year prior to me winning the Lou Groza Award, so I’m hoping it’ll be similar to that.
That year, Moody made 22 of 24 field goals, including some in bad weather, and didn’t miss one of his 56 extra-point attempts to win the nation’s top kicker honors.
Bring on Joseph, who has played for six teams in six NFL seasons and made 116 of 141 field-goal attempts.
“He’s been in the league for a little bit — obviously for a reason,” Moody said. “I got to meet him (last) week. He’s a good dude and I think the competition is going to bring out the best in both of us, and hopefully we’ll both be on a roster this season.”
Kornblue knows Joseph well and said he is “talented.”
“That will be a battle, but Jake is one of the best kickers I have ever been around and I have been around a lot of guys,” he said. “Both strength-wise and consistency-wise, he is as good and as even-keeled as they come. I feel that when Jake is on, he can’t be beat. He has all the tools.”
One more thing that will come in handy is new long snapper Jon Weeks, who is coming off a 15-year run with the Houston Texans.
“Adding Weeks is a big deal for (Moody) — that total operation being smooth and everything like that will certainly help the kid for sure,” Boyer said.
Signing Weeks was an under-the-radar move in an offseason that saw the 49ers lose eight starters in free agency, use their first five draft picks on defense and then sign tight end George Kittle, linebacker Fred Warner and quarterback Brock Purdy to long-term deals.
“Those guys are like the main glue that holds the team together and they’re all the best at their respective positions in the entire league,” Moody said. “It’s been a little hectic offseason, but at the same time, it’s been pretty cool.”
Now, the 49ers would love to see what a healthy Moody — only the second kicker drafted in the first three rounds in the last 19 years — can do.
“I’m excited to see what the new two-step approach can bring me this year,” Moody said. “Hopefully, I won’t miss a single kick.”