The San Francisco 49ers didn’t have a single pick in the 2023 NFL draft until the end of the third round on Friday night. They paid back their patient fans by using their first pick on a kicker, Michigan’s Jake Moody.
It didn’t go over well. Taking a kicker in the third round is generally frowned upon. Doing so with the first pick the team makes in a draft? That’s cause for ridicule. And 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan admitted he took some serious grief.
Per Michael Silver, Shanahan acknowledged that he got texts from several colleagues and friends across the NFL making fun of him for drafting a kicker so highly. Shanahan then told Silver he would make fun of them if they did the same, a rather puzzling admission that won’t help Niners fans feel any better about the bizarre pick.
After the Niners drafted Michigan's Jake Moody, HC Kyle Shanahan got texts "from all my friends" around the league making fun of him for taking a kicker in the third round. I suggested that he'd have done the same to them. "Damn right I would have," he said, laughing…
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) April 29, 2023
It’s worth noting that Shanahan didn’t actually make the selection of Moody, who was one of college football’s best kickers in 2022. San Francisco GM John Lynch deserves that credit, err, blame.
