This is the last of a three-part series evaluating the San Francisco 49ers’ season so far. In part one, the 49ers offense was covered. In part two, the defense was covered. And now this final article will cover the San Francisco 49ers special teams unit. Unfortunately, the special teams unit is by far the weakest link out of the three phases of the game for the 49ers.
The 49ers have been a good, maybe even great team, with their offense and defense in conjunction. Unfortunately, the special teams have held them back in numerous ways. From a lack of explosive plays to setting both units up for failure with field position, to giving up big plays, the San Francisco 49ers special teams has been one of the worst units in all of football.
The Kicking Game
If there is one aspect of special teams that the 49ers have succeeded at, it’s been with kicking field goals. Despite an injury to their starting Kicker Jake Moody, the 49ers are fourth in the NFL currently in field goal percentage, converting on 95.6% on 22 made field goals. This is also despite them having three kickers take field goals at some point this season. Even their backup, Matthew Wright, got hurt and they had to pick up Anders Carlson in free agency.
The San Francisco 49ers have also benefited from not kicking as many deep field goals as other teams have had to. They’ve only taken five field goals from beyond fifty yards this season, going 4-of-5 on them. If there is one area in which missing Jake Moody has hurt the Niners special teams, it’s with their touchbacks on kickoffs. With Moody in the lineup, the 49ers had 23 of their 28 kickoffs result in touchbacks. With him off the field, the 49ers have had just three of their 21 kickoffs result in a touchback.
The Punting Game
San Francisco 49ers Punter Mitch Wishnowsky has been on the team since 2019. While he hasn’t been awful by any means, he’s not considered one of the better punters in the league, not once making a Pro Bowl in his career. As far as this season goes, he’s been a mixed bag. He’s been average to below average in every major punting statistic.
Wishnowsky is 29th in punt gross average, 30th in the longest punt this season and 24th in punts inside the 20-yard line with just ten. The lone positive with Wishnowsky this season is that he has not had a touchback yet on punts through eight games. The big negative is that even despite that, he doesn’t consistently help the 49ers defense in terms of advantageous field position. The 49ers rank 28th in terms of defensive starting position on average this season, although part of that issue has been in the punt return defense.
The Return and Return Coverage Game
This has been the San Francisco 49ers’ biggest problem all season long consistently. The kick return game has been uninspired at best for the 49ers. They’ve gained just 267 return yards on kickoffs all year. Part of it is lack of opportunity, as they’ve only returned ten kickoffs this season, but no matter what, that is still a concerningly low number. The punt return game has also been bad. They’ve gained just 84 punt return yards on 12 attempts.
What makes the 49ers lack of special teams explosive returns even worse is that they’ve been awful at covering kickoff and punt returns. They’ve already given up over 600 yards on kick returns, including a kickoff return touchdown in Week 6 against the Seahawks. On punt returns, they’ve given up 160 yards on just nine attempts, which has routinely set up their defense in bad field position. The most notable example was against Kansas City in week 7, when the punt defense allowed a 55-yard return from Mecole Hardman that set up the Chiefs at San Fran’s 30-yard line.
Final Thoughts
If the San Francisco 49ers do not improve even marginally on special teams, it will not matter how good their other two units play, they will not win a Super Bowl. There have been great teams before them like the 2010 Chargers who were completely sunk by their special teams unit despite having an elite offense and defense. The San Francisco 49ers must do something about these problems otherwise they will have the same fate.
