Jake Moody might not go down as the biggest kicker bust in NFL Draft history, but the 49ers' second-year pro is coming awfully close.
If one were to make a consensus of the biggest kicker bust in the history of the NFL, the likely No. 1 choice would be Roberto Aguayo, formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who was dismissed after just one season in 2016 after the Bucs used a second-round draft pick on him out of Florida State.
There are a handful of reasons why the San Francisco 49ers' own kicker, Jake Moody, isn't quite at that same level.
But Moody has to at least be in the conversation.
True, Moody's rookie year after being selected by the Niners in Round 3 in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Michigan, wasn't wholly awful. And, unlike Aguayo, Moody survived his first year to play in Year 2.
However, the similarities start to blend once Moody's 2024 campaign is brought into the discussion.
Jake Moody's 2024 campaign is eerily paralleling Roberto Aguayo's bust of a career
Again, it's not an equal comparison. San Francisco's specialist suffered a high-ankle sprain halfway through 2024 that kept him out of three games, and head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted the injury to Moody's kicking leg likely impacted his abilities down the stretch of the regular season.
However, numbers are numbers.
Moody entered the 49ers' Week 18 regular-season finale with a 71.9 field-goal percentage, significantly down from his 2023 mark of 84.0. He missed five of his eight tries from 50-plus yards up to that point, and his 6-of-10 line from the 40- to 49-yard mark was notably awful, too.
Jake Moody entered Week 18 ranked 33rd in NFL in field-goal percentage (71.9). #49ers
— Eric Branch (@Eric_Branch) January 5, 2025
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In comparison, Aguayo's lone season in the NFL produced a slightly worse 71.0 percentage, although Tampa Bay's one-year under-wonder only tried a single field goal from 50-plus yards, and he missed it.
Making things worse for Moody, though, is the fact he started off his Week 18 performance going 1-of-2 against the Arizona Cardinals, making his percentage on the year drop to 70.6.
Lower than Aguayo's. Sheesh.