Biggest winners, losers from 49ers’ moves in 2023 NFL Draft
By Peter Panacy
Loser: 49ers K Zane Gonzalez
The Niners didn’t use one of their early picks in this year’s NFL Draft on an offensive lineman.
They did, however, use one of them on a placekicker, Michigan’s Jake Moody at No. 99 overall.
Moody will eventually have to justify San Francisco’s use of a third-round pick on him, but that’s a problem for another time.
In the interim, the pickup must be a blow to veteran kicker Zane Gonzalez, for whom the 49ers traded from the Carolina Panthers earlier this offseason. While that trade was little more than a back-end-of-the-draft shuffling of draft picks and certainly didn’t rule out a move like the one that landed Moody, Gonzalez had to feel a bit slighted after originally being targeted by the Niners earlier this offseason.
Unless Moody completely botches training camp or suffers an injury, Gonzalez is going to be shown the door.