They’ll get one, after letting go of special teams coordinator Brian Schneider
We know that the San Francisco 49ers’ special teams unit has been in shambles for several seasons. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan knew about these problems and have tried various methods to fix them. They’ve used free agency (George Odum and Oren Burks), the draft (Tatum Bethune), and even high draft capital to replace a veteran kicker with a rookie.
The problems worsened in 2022 when Brian Schneider became the special teams coordinator. Then, things didn’t improve in 2023, and they crashed and burned in 2024. Now, Scheider is out, leaving the 49ers needing a replacement. While former defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen has been floated as a potential replacement, 2024 was such a disaster that it would be wise of Lynch and Shanahan to look outside of the organization, if anything, for fresh eyes on a problem that’s plagued the 49ers.
Let’s start with the most obvious of the special teams issues: Jake Moody. After a rookie season that saw more good than bad, Moody had plenty of positives to build off of in his second season. And Moody started about as well as you could have asked. He went six-for-six in the 49ers’ opening-week win over the New York Jets and made 13 of his first 14 kicks. But Moody would miss three games after injuring himself on a tackle attempt, and San Francisco would bring in Anders Carlson and Matthew Wright to cover. Carlson and Wright would combine to make all eight field goal attempts they were tasked with before Moody returned.
And that’s when the issues began.
Moody returned by missing three of six kicks against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before saving face by nailing the game-winner. The kicker would make both his attempts over the following two games before missing two of three in a snowy Buffalo. Again, Moody would have a couple of clean games before ending the season by falling off a cliff, missing four of six attempts over the last three games of the season.
After starting the season 13-for-14 in his first five games, Moody would go 11-for-20 over the last nine games, finishing 24-for-34 in his second season. That 70.6 hit rate ranked 32nd of 36 qualified kickers. Of the kickers to finish in the top ten in kicking percentage, only one (Cam Little) was with the team that originally drafted him, and only four entered the NFL via the draft, with Austin Seibert being the one draft the highest with a fifth-round pick in 2019.
The 49ers used a top-100 pick on a kicker that would be 32nd-best in his second season.
It wasn’t only at kicker the 49ers found out using draft capital was silly, but punter as well. In 2019, the 49ers used the 110th pick to select Mitch Wishnowsky. And while Wishnowsky has been with the 49ers for six years, he’s just a punter. With Wishnowsky missing most of the season with a back injury, San Francisco brought in veteran Pat O’Donnell. While 49ers fans got a little too familiar with O’Donnell (24 punts in eight games), he proved just as productive as Wishnowsky. O’Donnell averaged 45.1 yards per punt, only half a yard worse than Wishnosky’s career average.
While the 49ers proved they can produce as much as possible from their main focus on special teams without using draft capital, the more prominent issues lie within everything else. The 49ers’ special teams unit was getting gashed on kick and punt returns. San Francisco allowed 28.6 yards per kickoff return (ninth-most) and 13.8 yards per punt return (third-most). Those special teams yards caused some significant issues for the 49ers’ defense, specifically with field position.
The opponent’s average starting field position against the 49ers was the 33-yard line. That was the best average starting field position against the league, with the Titans and Raiders (seven combined wins) right behind. That field position given up by the special teams unit could be seen as a direct cause to the 49ers defense allowing the eighth-fewest yards while allowing the third-most points. Short fields due to the special team resulted in plenty of points scored against the 49ers.
With Scheider out and both kicking positions in question, this off-season has to be used to revamp a unit that has cost the 49ers more games in recent years than they’ve won. Use these next few months to bring somebody fresh in to give a different voice to a special teams unit that’s become stale.
The first three parts of what we learned from the 2024 49ers have been overwhelmingly negative, but we will turn to some positives tomorrow.
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