We decided to get in on the mock draft action and do a seven-round mock that we cut up by round. Chances are the 49ers make some trades and don’t use all 11 of their scheduled selections, but for our purposes we stuck with the 11 picks to get a feel for what types of players San Francisco might target in which round. We used the Pro Football Focus mock draft simulator to execute the mock, and made thee picks for the 49ers. Here’s the sixth round:
The 49ers enter the draft with only one selection in Round 6. With a handful of other key boxes already checked with their choices in Rounds 3 and 5, this was a good chance to snag the kicker they appear primed to bring in.
It should be said that San Francisco doesn’t necessarily need to take a kicker. First, they’ve already added veteran Zane Gonzalez in a trade with the Panthers. That changes the urgency some, but it doesn’t preclude them from drafting a kicker to compete with Gonzalez. If a really good player they like drops to them in the sixth round, it would make all the sense to skip picking a kicker. They can add an undrafted player or two and go from there.
However, the draft’s top kicking prospect, Jake Moody from Michigan, was available when the 49ers were on the clock in our mock. Moody wound up being the choice.
He was the Wolverines’ full-time kicker the last two years and handled kickoffs for the club – a key factor in San Francisco’s kicker additions. Over his college career he connected on 82.1 percent of his 84 kicks and went a perfect 148-148 on extra points. In the last two years he went 52-60 on field goals (86.7 percent).
Moody would have a real chance to win the kicking job, especially if he can help improve the team’s touchback rate on kickoffs. However, with a sixth-round pick, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t wind up landing the spot.
