Jake Moody had not missed a field goal attempt entering the Week 6 clash with the Cleveland Browns. On Sunday, he missed two crucial kicks, with the second ending the San Francisco 49ers' impressive 15-game winning streak.
This past offseason, there had been a lot of talk about the 49ers investing a third-round draft pick on a kicker. Those conversations reignited soon after Moody's kick sailed wide right in the closing seconds of Sunday's stunning defeat.
However, the locker room rallied around Moody, offering unwavering support for the first-year kicker.
"He's a young player," linebacker Fred Warner said after the game. "He's a rookie, and he's going to have so many other opportunities to help us win games. And so, like I said, I would never put that on him, to say that we lost this game because of him."
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On Friday morning, 49ers general manager John Lynch weighed in on the week's narrative surrounding Moody and the decision to select the kicker in the third round. He, too, expressed his steadfast support of the young player.
"That was a decision for the now and for the future, and Jake's going to be a really good player for us for a long time," Lynch said on KNBR's "Murph and Mac" show. "We've got full confidence that he's going to respond. Now, he has to go do that, and that's a tough position. It's a tough place to kick, at Cleveland, but Jake would be the first to tell you he's got to finish that game, and that's his expectation that he does.
"We've got a lot of confidence in Jake because of what he does out here each and every day, what he's put on film, and because of his makeup. So we've got a lot of confidence in him. I think he can grow from this experience, and kickers miss from time to time.
"I know there's a spotlight on him because he is a rookie [and] where we drafted him, but we've got a lot of belief that he's going to be a tremendous kicker and an asset for us moving forward."
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Lynch also noted that Moody kicked for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and is likely accustomed to high-pressure situations. Additionally, one of Moody's former Wolverine teammates and fellow rookie, wide receiver Ronnie Bell, recently expressed his confidence in Moody to the general manager.
"One of the coolest things, Ronnie Bell came up to me on the field yesterday, as we were in our field goal portion of our practice, and he just said, 'This kid's a stud. I was around him for four years at Michigan. He's going to be fine. He's going to be great,'" Lynch shared. "And so, to hear it from someone who's been around him, that's our feeling anyhow, but I think our whole team's got a lot of belief in him, and now he's got to just go show it by being him."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
