Recently, we took a look at the Rick Gosselin special teams rankings — always a treat each year. They go real in-depth with special teams coverage, and the San Francisco 49ers came out of it ranking around the middle of the pack in most categories. Overall, they finished 15th in the league, nearly dead center.
And as we already discussed earlier today, the folks at Pro Football Focus are also pretty big on ranking things. They put out their final special teams rankings for the 2017 season, and they have the 49ers at No. 9 overall. This is what they have to say:
Kicker Robbie Gould made an outrageous 17-of-18 field goals between 40 and 49 yards (with another 4-of-4 from beyond 50). It’s a wonder why the analytically-sound 49ers coaching staff had Bradley Pinion kicking off so deep, but he answered the bell there, with 64 of his 79 kickoffs resulting in touchbacks.
Ninth is a lot better than 15th, after all. Gould was spectacular this past year, and I don’t think there was a better kicker in the NFL. PFF didn’t have him graded the highest despite having the best stats, but it is what it is.
The Los Angeles Rams possess an even better special teams unit as a whole. They ranked at the top of the Gosselin numbers, but are third on PFF’s list, behind the Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings. I tend to think the Rams should be ranked the highest, and the 49ers somewhere between the 15 and 9 these two rankings have them at. What say you?