The 49ers' kicker situation is still a mess

The 49ers' plan to find a suitable replacement for veteran kicker Robbie Gould is falling apart at the seams, and the fallout could linger right up until the start of the regular season.
San Francisco moved quickly in this year’s draft to fill the gap the 40-year-old player left behind, selecting Michigan’s Jake Moody in the third round in a surprising move. “Money Moody” was the first kicker the Niners had drafted since 2002 and the first kicker selected in the first three rounds of a draft since 2016.
The wager has looked shaky in limited game action. Moody missed two field goals in a preseason game against the Raiders, and though he made all three field goals against the Broncos, he missed an extra point.
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The game against Denver would end up being Moody’s last preseason appearance. The rookie kicker suffered a strained right quad in practice leading up to the Chargers game last Friday. Zane Gonzalez, who most recently kicked for the Panthers in 2021, entered in Moody’s place. However, that plan B fell through when Gonzalez picked up a “severe” calf injury during warmups.
With both kickers out, punter Mitch Wishnowsky handled kickoff duties, as he did from 2019 to 2021. He also tried and missed an extra point — with fullback Kyle Juszczyk holding — which went badly enough that the 49ers simply went for two on their second touchdown Friday night.
The 49ers announced Tuesday that Gonzalez would be placed on injured reserve. Moody was a lot luckier. Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters that the rookie is week-to-week and that he’s “hoping” Moody will be ready for Week 1, but that still leaves the 49ers with a hole in the roster at the moment.
With the season opener less than two weeks away, the team brought in free agent kickers Tristan Vizcaino and Taylor Russolino for workouts Monday, according to NBC Sports Bay Area. Vizcaino appeared in one game for San Francisco in 2020. Russolino is a 34-year-old with one game of NFL experience; in 2020, he went 1-of-3 on extra points and missed his lone field goal attempt. He played in the XFL this past spring.
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The front office is also gauging the trade market for kickers, according to The Athletic. The dominos have already started to fall on that front, with Saints kicker Wil Lutz reportedly heading to the Broncos Tuesday.
Back in July, Gould said that he “would’ve loved to have gone back” to the Niners.
“I told them I wanted to go back there,” Gould said. “We never got an offer from the team and we never had a conversation about coming back.”
Whether or not that conversation is coming, 49ers fans will certainly be clamoring for it.
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This story has been updated.
Aug 29, 2023|Updated Aug 29, 2023 1:59 p.m.
Gabe Fernandez is a sports reporter for SFGATE. You can reach him at gabe.fernandez@sfgate.com.