Special teams players don’t always get a ton of love, but anyone who has been following the San Francisco 49ers over the course of the last decade or so will remember the names Bradley Pinion and Taybor Pepper.
Pinion was San Francisco's punter from 2015 to 2018, and Pepper was the team’s long-snapper from 2020 to 2024. There was no overlap between the two players, but both have been signed by the Miami Dolphins. So if they end up working closely together in Miami, they can at least bond over their shared time in San Francisco.
Pinion was one of the premier free-agent punters on the market this offseason and the Dolphins ended up signing him although it is not known what his salary will be. He previously signed a three-year, $8.65 million deal with the Atlanta Falcons, and any punter who signs a three-year contract has to be pretty decent.
He certainly got a lot of practice punting the ball in his first few years with San Francisco. He led the league with 100 punts back in 2016 when the Niners went 2-14, so maybe he has to be a bit thankful he was on those awful 49ers teams to get all of that experience.
It would have made sense for the 49ers to reunite with Pinion this offseason after it became clear they would not be bringing back Thomas Morstead. Instead, San Francisco signed Corliss Waitman to handle punting duties next season, likely because he was less expensive than Pinion.
Pepper was with the Niners for years, and probably his most memorable moment was getting into a bit of a spat with wide receiver Deebo Samuel after Samuel confronted kicker Jake Moody on the sideline over his repeated missed kicks.
The man-bunned long-snapper was not signed by any team last season, although he did publicly muse that he could be signed by a team in the playoffs. That did not come to pass.
San Francisco cut Pepper loose last season after bringing in new special teams coordinator Brant Boyer, who basically cleaned house on special teams and brought in Jon Weeks to handle long-snapping duties. Weeks re-signed with the Niners in the offseason.
It will be interesting to see if the Niners can build off their positive special teams showing from last season especially after they were so putrid in that phase in prior years.
The 49ers will play the Dolphins at home next season, so perhaps we will get to see some old friends on special teams.