SF 49ers make mistake by retaining Robbie Gould

The SF 49ers redid kicker Robbie Gould’s deal for 2021 and 2022, saving money in the process. But parting ways would have been wiser.

It’s nothing against SF 49ers veteran kicker Robbie Gould. He’s easily one of the more likable and professional players on the team’s roster, and it’s always good for a player to get whatever money can come to him over the span of his career.

But from the Niners’ vantage point, inking Gould to a two-year extension worth $7.25 million guaranteed was not the right way to go.

Neither was the four-year, $19 million deal Gould signed back in 2019, which included two option years in 2020 and 2021. Outside of the Baltimore Ravens’ Justin Tucker, Gould’s contract was quite an outlier among kickers. That first deal was a mistake, especially for a San Francisco squad suddenly finding itself pressed up higher against a decreasing salary cap, which could drop down as low as $175 million next season.

Forget Gould’s ugly performance in Week 16 where he missed two field goals and one of two extra-point attempts, which could have been the difference if the Arizona Cardinals came back from what eventually turned into a 20-12 win for the SF 49ers. That game was an outlier, too, and even head coach Kyle Shanahan said it was important to recognize the kicker’s entire body of work.

For the most part, those efforts have been good. Gould’s 88.4 field-goal percentage ranks second best in franchise history for kickers who’ve spent at least six games with the team. And he also holds the top-two single-season field-goal percentages in franchise history from his efforts in 2017 and 2018, too.

Yes, the Niners shave off $2.75 million from the original deal Gould would have had initially. That’ll help.

But that body of work has been on the decline since Gould signed his initial extension. Just take a look:

Robbie Gould 49ers Kicking & Punting Table
			Game	Scor	Scor		Scor	Scor	Scor	Scor
Year	Age	Tm	G	FGA	FGM	Lng	FG%	XPA	XPM	XP%
2017	35	SFO	16	41	39	52	95.1%	30	28	93.3%
2018	36	SFO	16	34	33	53	97.1%	29	27	93.1%
2019	37	SFO	13	31	23	47	74.2%	42	41	97.6%
2020	38	SFO	15	23	19	52	82.6%	38	36	94.7%
Care	Care		236	462	400	58	86.6%	545	531	97.4%
11 y	11 y	CHI	166	323	276	58	85.4%	383	379	99.0%
4 yr	4 yr	SFO	60	129	114	53	88.4%	139	132	95.0%
1 yr	1 yr	NYG	10	10	10	47	100.0%	23	20	87.0%

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com
Generated 12/30/2020.

There are a lot of other things at play here, yes. Inconsistent special-teams batteries in 2019 marked a bad season, at least over the first half. Similar long-snapping challenges hurt San Francisco for parts of 2020, too.

But that kind of money, especially for an SF 49ers team already having over $156 million committed to player salaries in 2021 is an awfully big question mark.

Especially considering the mean salaries for kickers hover between $1 million and $2 million annually.

Instead, it would have been wiser for the Niners to decline Gould’s options for the next two seasons and get both younger and cheaper at the position, which is what cap-pressed teams do to save money for other areas of need.

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The only hope now is this latest move won’t come back to haunt San Francisco.