The San Francisco 49ers opened their season against the Seattle Seahawks—in Seattle no less—a place notorious for having some of the loudest and most raucous fans. When 49ers Pro Bowl tight end, George Kittle, had to exit the game due to a hamstring injury, the question arose: who was going to fill Kittle’s shoes for the remainder of the game?
The 49ers had two other tight ends on their active roster in Seattle: Jake Tonges, a Bay Area native from Los Gatos and a California Golden Bear, and Luke Farrell, an Ohio State Buckeye with some NFL experience under his belt.
With just under two minutes left in the fourth quarter, with the 49ers down by a score, 49er quarterback Brock Purdy completed a near-impossible touchdown pass to Tonges, boosting the 49ers to a 17-13 lead. The Seahawks responded with an impressive drive, threatening to win the game with a touchdown, but 49ers star defensive end Nick Bosa managed a strip sack on Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold to seal the 49er victory.
49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan knew that some personnel changes were due the week following their Week 1 win. Jake Moody, who had been the 49ers kicker for the past two seasons, came into this season with high expectations knowing that his reputation as a kicker was on the line.
Moody, who was an All-American at The University of Michigan, was one of if not the best kickers in Michigan history during his 5 years there. The 49ers may have taken a gamble when they drafted him with the 99th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
He made a substantial impact during his rookie campaign in the 2023 season, helping the 49ers reach Super Bowl LVIII, where he briefly set the Super Bowl record for the longest field goal made in any Super Bowl game, later to be broken by Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker later in the same game.
In his 2024 season campaign, Moody put up a far less impressive field goal percentage of 70.6%, compared to 84% the previous season. Moody slowly started to become much less of a reliable kicker, only making 24 of his 34 total attempted kicks in 2024.
Coming in to 2025, Moody was looking for a kicking renaissance, but after a dismal game in Seattle, where he missed a point after attempt, and had a field goal blocked going 1-for-3 overall, his roller coaster of a tenure with the 49ers came to an end being waived by the team following the game.
He has since been replaced by veteran kicker Eddie Piñero, who holds the fourth-best field goal percentage among all qualified kickers in NFL history, in which some may wonder why he wasn’t with any team at the time when the 49ers needed a new kicker.
The 49ers then went into New Orleans for their week 2 matchup against the Saints, without quarterback Brock Purdy, who is sidelined with shoulder and toe injuries, and Kittle, who has been placed on injured reserve and will miss at least three games.
This gritty San Francisco football team once again won a nail-biter, walking out with a 26-21 victory. However, the looming question remains: How will this San Francisco team progress throughout the season if they can’t rid themselves of the injury bug?
