Jake Moody 49ers Bears
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Jake Moody looks on during a game between the 49ers and Seahawks on September 07, 2025.
After the San Francisco 49ers cut ties with embattled kicker Jake Moody on Tuesday September 9, 2025, many Niners fans felt a little bit bad for Moody, even though they knew moving on from him was the right move for the team.
After all, Moody is still just 25 years old and he was great at kicking just a few short years ago. He’s had to endure a lot of online hate from the fanbase and even some confrontations with his own teammates.
Nobody doubts that Moody was trying to put his best foot forward, it just wasn’t working out in San Francisco. So those fans that pitied Moody hoped he found another NFL opportunity to shine.
Those fans don’t need to hope any longer. The Chicago Bears have signed Moody to their practice squad on Friday September 12, 2025, according to NFL insider Tom Pelissero.
In the same week that he was released, Moody is getting another chance to compete for an NFL kicking job.
The Bears seem to believe the same thing that those fans do: under new circumstances, Moody still has the potential to thrive.
Bears Kicking Woes
The Bears are signing Moody because evidently they aren’t satisfied with the recent performance of Cairo Santos.
Santos didn’t have a terrible season in 2024. He was 21-of-25 on field goals and 25-of-26 on extra points. His 84% field goal percentage was just below league average, and tied for 21st in the NFL with Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker.
But Santos had an abysmal Week 1 performance versus the Minnesota Vikings. It was arguably worse than Moody’s performance. It was definitely more consequential.
Santos missed a 50-yard field goal for the Bears, then botched a kickoff that the Bears coaching staff told him to simply boot through the back of the end zone. If he successfully kicked the ball for a touchback, the Bears would have essentially gained an extra free timeout, because the two minute warning would have happened after the Vikings’ first play.
The Bears lost, 27-24. The three points Santos left on the board, and several seconds he wasted, turned out to be crucial.
Santos is a 12-year NFL veteran who has been with the Bears since 2020. But just like the 49ers with Moody, it seems one week dramatically changed Santos’s job security.
Look I love Cairo Santos for hitting the game winner when we beat down the Packers in January
But as cool as that was, there are too many times that he doesn’t get it done
Kicking is too important to have a guy who struggles from 50+ and can’t kick the ball out of the end zone pic.twitter.com/RsGMTrBKxg
— Dave™️ 🐻⬇️ Official (@BigDFurny47) September 9, 2025
Now, all the pressure is on these two bad Week 1 kickers, in competition with each other, to rebound or get cut.
Another 49ers Special Teamer Finds A New Home
Moody isn’t the only guy who formerly kicked footballs for the 49ers who just signed with a different NFC team’s practice squad this week.
On Wednesday September 10, 2025, the Washington Commanders signed former 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky to their practice squad.
Wishnowsky did not play in the Commanders’ Week 2 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Special teams is often a unit of stability in the NFL. But just last year, Wishnowsky and Moody were the 49ers’ starting punter and kicker. Now, they are fighting for their careers on different teams’ practice squads and the 49ers have Eddy Pineiro and Thomas Morstead in town to handle the punting and kicking, respectively.
49ers fans, are you happy for Jake Moody and Mitch Wishnowsky? How do you feel about Eddy Pineiro and Thomas Morstead?