Kicker Kombat: Is Jake Moody’s first game of preseason a Kause for Koncern?

Well, at least San Francisco 49ers kicker Jake Moody made his first extra point attempt. So we know he’s not 100% like Roberto Aguayo, the last kicker a team reached for that flamed out. In case you haven’t kept track, Aguayo missed his first XP of preseason in his rookie year.

But that wasn’t exactly the best showing from Jake Moody. Two field goal attempts well within his range and both get missed. Obviously, it’s the first week of preseason, so all sorts of botches should be expected. Obviously, Moody is a rookie and the speed of the NFL game is a whole new beast.

And obviously, Moody needs to figure that out sooner, rather than later, or Zane Gonzalez could get an edge in Kicker Kombat.

Kyle Shanahan isn’t too worried about the misses. Are you worried? We’ll get to that. After all, this is how koncerned you are with Moody going into Week 2 of the preseason.

KP made a good point that Moody is in the unfair spot that he has to be perfect when stepping onto the field. Part of this is the hype train that yours truly probably had a hand in. The other part of it is the 3rd round pick burned to get him.

I’ll also piggyback on something KP noted, which is all eyes seeming to be on his two misses. Everyone, for a kombatant to win kicker kombat, they must harness a power that goes further than just field goals.

There is a kombo of things that are krucial to success. If you don’t remember, the 49ers had kickoff issues last year, especially around the end zone. If Moody can do those boots that lead to the opposing team starting on their 15-yard line, the defense will be licking their chops. If Moody can produce touchbacks as well so, there’s more variety available for special teams, it’s an upgrade.

But those field goals? Yikes! It looks like he bounced back a bit hitting kicks in practice Tuesday. Per the beat writers, he was 5-6 and was hitting those 50-ish well. The lone miss came from 61 yards. The 49ers held practice on Wednesday, but as of this writing, there hasn’t been anything about glimpses of Moody’s kicks.

One game isn’t going to make or break Moody, and it seems like it was just adjusting to the NFL game and having a few botches. If this keeps up for the rest of preseason it’s a kause for koncern, but I’m willing to give him a kouple mulligans for last week.

But what do you think? Are you already concer—whoops, “koncerned”?