The 49ers are placing their franchise tag on Robbie Gould, and I’m not surprised at all. He’s been about the best kicker in the league in recent years, and they didn’t want to have to get into a bidding war to stop him from heading back to Chicago.
The Bears released Gould in a contract-driven move a week before the start of the 2016 season, and that proved to be a remarkably bad decision. They’ve mostly struggled with at that position the last three seasons, using Connor Barth, Cairo Santos, Mike Nugent and Cody Parkey. They ended up paying Parkey a lot more than it would have cost to keep Gould and recently released him. Parkey famously hit the uprights 4 times in a game against the Lions and missed a 43-yard attempt that would have won a playoff game against the Eagles.
Gould, meanwhile, has been the league’s most accurate kicker over the last three years, missing only 3 of 85 field goal attempts. The 49ers were able to tap into that goodness for a total of $4 million over the last two years. Parkey’s contract included $9 million in guaranteed money, and he’s gone after one year.
| FIELD GOAL ACCURACY (2016-2018) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | FG | FGA | Pct |
| Robbie Gould | 82 | 85 | 96.5% |
| Justin Tucker | 107 | 115 | 93.0% |
| Matt Bryant | 88 | 97 | 90.7% |
| Greg Zuerlein | 84 | 93 | 90.3% |
| Harrison Butker | 62 | 69 | 89.9% |
| Josh Lambo | 64 | 73 | 87.7% |
| Stephen Gostkowski | 91 | 104 | 87.5% |
| Wil Lutz | 87 | 100 | 87.0% |
| Graham Gano | 73 | 84 | 86.9% |
| Ryan Succop | 83 | 96 | 86.5% |
| Matt Prater | 89 | 103 | 86.4% |
| Adam Vinatieri | 79 | 92 | 85.9% |
| Stephen Hauschka | 84 | 98 | 85.7% |
| Ka'imi Fairbairn | 57 | 67 | 85.1% |
| Dustin Hopkins | 74 | 88 | 84.1% |
| Jake Elliott | 52 | 62 | 83.9% |
| Jason Myers | 71 | 85 | 83.5% |
| Chris Boswell | 69 | 83 | 83.1% |
| Mason Crosby | 71 | 86 | 82.6% |
| Sebastian Janikowski | 51 | 62 | 82.3% |
| Cody Parkey | 64 | 78 | 82.1% |
| Brandon McManus | 73 | 91 | 80.2% |
| Phil Dawson | 55 | 69 | 79.7% |
| Chandler Catanzaro | 62 | 78 | 79.5% |
| Dan Bailey | 63 | 80 | 78.8% |
Gould doesn’t have a bazooka leg, but he’s been very reliable on longer kicks. Even on field goals from 50-plus yards, he’s been the most accurate in the league. Among active players with at least 10 attempts, only three others have converted over 70 percent.
| 50-YARD FIELD GOALS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | FG | FGA | Pct |
| Robbie Gould | 29 | 37 | .784 |
| Matt Prater | 46 | 61 | .754 |
| Stephen Gostkowski | 25 | 35 | .714 |
| Justin Tucker | 38 | 54 | .704 |
| Phil Dawson | 42 | 60 | .700 |
| Ka'imi Fairbairn | 7 | 10 | .700 |
| Matt Bryant | 38 | 56 | .679 |
| Stephen Hauschka | 27 | 40 | .675 |
| Dan Bailey | 28 | 42 | .667 |
| Josh Lambo | 10 | 15 | .667 |
| Adam Vinatieri | 43 | 67 | .642 |
| Jake Elliott | 7 | 11 | .636 |
| Chandler Catanzaro | 10 | 16 | .625 |
| Jason Myers | 16 | 26 | .615 |
| Kai Forbath | 11 | 18 | .611 |
| Wil Lutz | 9 | 15 | .600 |
| Connor Barth | 18 | 30 | .600 |
| Greg Zuerlein | 28 | 48 | .583 |
| Graham Gano | 20 | 35 | .571 |
| Ryan Succop | 20 | 36 | .556 |
| Sebastian Janikowski | 58 | 105 | .552 |
| Mason Crosby | 34 | 64 | .531 |
| Caleb Sturgis | 13 | 25 | .520 |
| Dustin Hopkins | 9 | 18 | .500 |
| Randy Bullock | 8 | 16 | .500 |
| Cairo Santos | 7 | 14 | .500 |
| Brandon McManus | 13 | 28 | .464 |
| Mike Nugent | 13 | 30 | .433 |
I expect Gould will be one of the top 4 kickers on my board this year. Typically I prefer kickers from good teams. Teams that win more games score more points. Of the last 35 teams to score at least 140 kicking points in a season, only one finished with a losing record (the 49ers, going 6-10 in 2017, when Gould scored 145 points).
I can’t at this point promise the 49ers will fit into the winning team profile. They’re stuck in the NFC West with the Rams and Seahawks. But Kyle Shanahan has been a kicker-friendly coach. With Shanahan calling the offensive plays, Matt Bryant scored a league-high 158 kicking points in 2016. And in San Francisco the last two years, Gould has scored 145 and 126 points despite the team finishing with 6-10 and 4-12 records).
I would be comfortable with Gould as my kicker. I would be willing to pay a little more for him, rather than playing kicker roulette in the final round of a draft.
—Ian Allan