49ers special teams received added check after wholesale changes

Santa Clara – A training of the football training camp without pads can be an exercise in pollution.

According to a tight end, George Kittle is not really football. Coach Kyle Shanahan is also not a fan.

“I hate practicing without pads. It just worries me. So I just want to follow these rules, reach the pads, so it’s a bit safer with protection,” said Shanahan on Wednesday after the first day of the 49ers. “You have the chance to block people. You can simply prepare more for football. It’s difficult day, everyone is ready to go, but still has to be patient. So I just try to stay as relaxed as possible to get into this groove and most of the time we will be next week.”

Pads are only Monday after a four-day walk-in without pads as imposed by the NFLPA collective negotiation agreement.

Saving the day in terms of interest on day 1 was the work of 49 people on special teams, an area that they have been criticized for treatment as a side issue.

It was hard to note that then Kickers Jake Moody and Greg Joseph started changing the field goal attempts to change a solid one and a half hours halfway through that the interest of both players and coaches was aroused.

Without holdouts of Hold-ins and no big surprises in terms of players who miss time due to injuries, Moody and Joseph were central or as close to the center as you can get during the practice of special teams.

With Shanahan, general manager John Lynch and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh who look together from a distance of approximately 25 meters, new coordinator of special teams Brant Boyer was in the middle of the action that supervises.

In recent years, Kickers would alternate days and there was never a question that would be Moody the regular seasonal locer in 2023 and 2024. This year the two will kick each other in some days.

“It all depends on the representatives we give them and so and Brant decides how he wants to do it so that he can do it over time,” Shanahan said. “So it’s not only every day. We can stack these and see who has the better camp. But I think I think they missed one between the two in OTAs. So they both kicked really well and it should be a really good fight this camp.”

For the record, starting with 28-Yard attempts and the distance of the distance four times until it reached the 45, Moody and Joseph were both perfect.

“I actually paid attention,” said Defense End Nick Bosa after the first training of the 49ers of the training camp. “I can’t lie. It’s a bit exciting.”

Draftniks reclaimed horror when Moody was a third round pick (no. 99 in general) from Michigan in 2023. A kicker in the third round? For shame.

After having gone 21-out-25 as Rookie in a team that scored many touchdowns, Moody was 24-out-34 last season. All 10 mistakes were from 40 meters and then, but in honesty, Moody was specifically drawn up to make long-distance shovels in addition to the gimmes who made his predecessor Robbie Gould with machine-like accuracy.

Part of it was on the 49 people. When Moody sustained a high ankle disease and a tackle made a kick -off – yes, the 49ers cover until he had not done his work – in week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals, his season went off the rails.

Moody was 13-out-14 before he missed three games in favor of Matthew Wright and Anders Carlson. Just like Moody, Wright was injured in a tackle attempt due to bloated coverage. Upon his return, Moody 9-out-20, including three mistakes against Tampa Bay, a match he won at a 44-Yard field goal in the extension.

Even that game came with special teams Anguish, where Deebo Samuel made an exception to a moody miss with a blow to the helmet, which called on a reaction of a long-snapper Taybor Pepper.

It is fair to speculate that Moody kicked earlier than he should have after a high ankle sprain. Joseph, 30, played for six teams last season and three-16-out-20 for the Giants, Commanders and Jets.

Samuel is no longer close, nor Pepper or Punter Mitch Wishnowsky. Moody will have to beat Joseph to keep his job, and Wednesday was only the start of a competition that should bring some drama to the three exhibition games of the 49 people.

Shanahan has been clear in his special team philosophy – he doesn’t want to win as much in that area as even breaks and not losing it. But last season the 49ers were horrible in just about every area of special teams, and Shanahan was ahead at full speed in his desire to improve.

It started with the resignation of special team coordinator Brian Schneider and the recruitment of Boyer, who was the special teams of the New York Jets from 2016 to 2014.

George Odum, a leader of a special teams, was released before the camp started. Boyer brought in his own Punter (Thomas Morstead) to replace Wishnowsky and a long snapper (Jon Weeks) to replace pepper. Cornerback Siran Neal and Linebacker Luke Gifford were mainly drawn as a special team players.