It was night two of the 2023 NFL Draft, and now San Francisco 49ers kicker Jake Moody had gone to dinner with his girlfriend, Kamryn Abraskin, and his parents, Lisa and Chad. There wasn’t a feeling that Moody would be drafted in the earlier rounds, so it was a normal day.
“We were expecting fourth round for sure,” said Moody’s mom, Lisa Moody.
“More fifth really,” said Chad Moody, Moody’s dad.
But they got home from dinner and the phone rang.
“We were eating dinner and came back and we were just sitting on the couch,” Kamryn Abraskin told Fangirl Sports Network. “We joked and said, ‘Jake, put on your ringer, just if someone calls,’ because he never answers his phone…Then I prank called him from the other room. His parents were like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ …About 30 minutes later was when he got the call…and [Jake] said, ‘It’s not Kamryn this time. It’s not Kamryn.'”
It was the San Francisco 49ers calling to say that with the 99th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, they were picking Jake Moody. It was the third round.
How It’s Going
Fast forward to Sept. 9, 2024 and Moody goes 6-for-6 on field goals, leads the NFL in Week 1 points and is named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
“It’s a cool honor, but it doesn’t change anything,” Moody said. “We have another game coming up this week, so it’s not like it just carries over and helps you out the rest of the year. So you just got to treat it like any other week.”
As he enters his second year with the 49ers, Moody does so without much of the chatter he experienced in his rookie year.
“[B]eing able to get through his rookie year, being a draft pick and everything, having to replace a guy like Robbie, all eyes are on him to start,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. “Going from his first misses in the preseason through the miss versus Cleveland, those are such a big deal when you haven’t done it before.
“But every time that he got more eyes on him and people were waiting for him to fail, he always rebounded and got through that. And when you do that, you build true confidence and you get stronger through adversity. I feel like he went through a ton in his first year. Coming into his second year, I forget that he is only a second-year player. He handles himself very well and carries himself like a true veteran now.”
Moody’s rookie season saw him go 21-0f-25 on field goals and 60-of-61 on extra points in the regular season. He set a 49ers-franchise record for longest field goal by a rookie (57 yards). He kicked a 55-yard field goal in the Super Bowl, which was a record, until Harrison Butker broke it later in the game. Rude.
“[Special Teams Coordinator Brian Schneider] jokes that last season Jake played through four seasons, as far as the different forms of adversity that he faced,” said 49ers long snapper Taybor Pepper. “His preseason was wild, ups and downs…Then there were multiple things throughout the year and then the playoffs, and he goes deep into the playoffs and it was really extraordinary. He overcame a lot of things. I mean, in the Super Bowl, nailing two 50-plus-yard kicks is just wild. This year, we just saw his confidence go up.”
For Moody, year 2 has already felt different than year 1.
“Coming into this year felt pretty similar to how I felt in college,” Moody said. “Just having a few years of experience under my belt, feeling confident, feeling comfortable, knowing my teammates, the environment, everything. So it felt a lot better this year.”
Another thing that seems to have helped Moody feel stronger physically is having had a true offseason. During his senior year, Moody’s college football team (Go Blue!) made it to the college football playoff. Shortly after that, he kicked in the Shrine Bowl, then it was time to get ready for the Combine and then his Pro Day, etc etc.
“He had basically zero time off, or very limited time off, in that offseason, whereas most guys need that, especially at that position,” said Moody’s longtime kicking coach Brandon Kornblue. “They always say, from week one to week two as a team is the biggest growth. And so from year one to year two as a professional, I think you’re going to see growth in that way as well.”
And then there’s just being comfortable in your new job, something that most everyone can relate to.
“This year he knows everything,” said Moody’s mom Lisa Moody. He knows what he’s walking into. He settled into his house. He knows where he is going to golf because that calms him. So I definitely think there’s some calm to him now that he didn’t have at the beginning of last year.”
How It Started
Moody’s kicking career began in the sixth grade when he transitioned from soccer to football, and his coach saw something special.
“After practice one day…one of the coaches, who was one of our neighbors and he played in college…came up to me and he said, ‘Jake was kicking today. He’s really good. You should invest in a kicking coach because I think he could play in college,'” said Lisa Moody.
Moody ended up working with a kicker at Ferris State to begin with and eventually met Kornblue.
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“He was in middle school the first time he came to one of our camps, and he was just a small skinny little kid,” Kornblue said. “And then in high school, he got more involved…We would do three or four camps in Michigan every year, and then he would come down to Florida here and there for either private training or some of the more personalized stuff. I’ve been with him, known him and his family a long time, so it’s been a really cool journey.”
The Calm, Cool and Collective Side
Being a kicker is not for the faint of heart. One day, you’re the hero. And another day, you can very much not be the hero.
Moody experienced that early in his rookie season during a Week 5 loss to the Cleveland Browns that came down to a field goal – and one that Moody missed, barely missed, but missed nonetheless.
“At the end of the day, I’m the one that’s kicking the ball,” Moody said. “So no matter what happens prior to that, if I get a foot on it, I believe that I should make every kick as long as I have a chance to kick it…I think I have the ability to make anything, whether the ball’s laying sideways or up and down. That’s kind of why I have to take accountability, because I feel like I should make all of all of them.”
Ask anyone that knows Moody, and they all say he has pretty even keeled personality, which is helpful for such a high-pressure position.
“He’s kind of just like, ‘This is my position, this is what I like to do,'” Abraskin said “And he’s just very, even keeled, very calm. He’s a relaxed dude…And then honestly, his calmness rubs off on me, which is what I need for my career. So he’s helped me along the way with that. He’s always just been very relaxed. He doesn’t get worked up about anything, which is great.”
Abraskin is in medical school, so two very different kinds of pressure, but definitely two careers with pressure.
“It’s interesting because I was studying for my Step One exam, which is the big first board exam you take between second and third year of medical school,” Abraskin said. “Mine was a week after the Super Bowl…I was like, ‘I’m going to take a chance and go.’ Jake was super supportive of it and encouraging and was making sure that I was prepped for my exam, but also prepping himself for the Super Bowl, which is kind of crazy. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes and what they’re dealing with.”
Abraskin will be at Sunday’s game against the Vikings, but Moody has made sure her ducks are in a row.
“He just always makes sure that my stuff is ready to go and I feel okay before I travel and stuff,” Abraskin said. “I’m going to the game this weekend, so he makes sure that all of my studies this week have been on par and everything is up-to-date and whatnot.”
Ladies, if your boyfriend isn’t preparing for the Super Bowl, while preparing you for your studies, you don’t want it.
And Then There’s the Fun Side
Moody has become a golfer and has gotten Taybor Pepper into it too, and sometimes they golf together. Moody’s parents talked about how he and his sister Jessica were goofy as kids.
“I’ve also been his ball shagger since he started kicking in middle school and still go out to practice with him to this day,” Jessica Moody said. “I love that I can contribute to a small part of his journey in that way. We share the same sense of humor and have lots of inside jokes, which I love.”
Abraskin appreciates his sense of humor at the end of a long day.
“He’s just always goofing around with me and then he’ll FaceTime me at the end of the day, which is typically when we talk…[and] he always answers with a funny face, so it’s kind of fun.”
The calm, the quiet, the fun is appreciated in the 49ers locker room.
“He’s awesome, and [49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky] and I love him and the locker room loves Jake,” said Pepper.
They also really appreciate his field goals.
“Anytime you go six-for-six and win NFC player of the week, I think that’s a great thing,” said 49ers tight end George Kittle. And I think hopefully that just continues to increase his confidence, because he’s a hell of a kicker that can kick really, really long field goals.”