Niners Nation
It’s that time of year again. The San Francisco 49ers started their quest for six with a 17-13 win up in Seattle.
But just like last year, instead of looking at the schedule as a series of 17 games, we will look at each game as an individual homework assignment to prepare for the test that is the regular season. Unfortunately, last season, the 49ers didn’t even get the chance to take the test. This year, San Francisco obviously hopes that changes.
So what did we learn from the first homework assignment of 2025? These three things:
The time to move on from Moody was probably at the end of the 2024 season, but Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch wanted to give Moody one more chance. Moody’s 55 percent clip over the final nine games of last season proved to be just bad enough for the 49ers to bring in Greg Joseph to compete with Moody over training camp.
That competition was never one, and Joseph was released before the team’s first preseason game.
The decision set the stage for Sunday, when Moody went 1-for-3 on field goals, lowering his field goal percentage to a hapless 52.2 percent since the bye week last season. But it’s not the misses that should be why Moody is moved on from; it’s the trust.
Moody’s first miss came from 27 yards on Sunday when he clanged a kick from the left hashmark off the left upright. That set the tone for confidence in the kicker as he lined up for a much more intimidating 36-yard attempt in the third quarter that ended up being blocked, which isn’t Moody’s fault. He finally split the uprights on his third attempt (the charm) from what should be a manageable 32 yards, but with Moody, nothing is manageable.
On Sunday alone, we watched as Chris Boswell, a 34-year-old who went undrafted back in 2014, nailed a 56-yard and 60-yard field goal at the horn to give the Steelers a victory over the Jets. Then, in the Sunday night game, fifth-round rookie Tyler Loop nailed a 52-yard and a 49-yard field goal to start his career perfect. And to close things out, 41-year-old Matt Prater – who was available to sign last week – went three-for-three, hitting a 32-yard field goal to give the Bills a comeback victory over the Ravens.
Now ask yourself, would you have trusted Jake Moody to hit any of those field goals? If your answer is yes, I am open to taking whatever drug you are on.
But the answer is no, you could not trust Moody to make those kicks because, simply enough, he can’t be trusted to make a 27-yard attempt, let alone anything Boswell hit on Sunday.
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