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The 49ers have a decision to make on Robbie Gould. By Saturday, Jan. 2, they’ll need to decide whether they’ll exercise their team option on the 38-year-old placekicker. His final game before that deadline didn’t go well, but head coach Kyle Shanahan said it won’t impact the team’s thought process.
“No, you’ve got to look at the body of work with Robbie,” Shanahan said in a post-game video conference. “Robbie’s been unbelievable since he’s been here for us. He’s had an unbelievable year this year. Yeah, it was tough on those situations. Robbie will be harder on himself than anyone. He’s played too much football in his career. He’s played too much football for us to let one game decide on who he is.”
Gould in Saturday’s 20-12 win over the Arizona Cardinals missed field goals from 41 and 37 yards. He also missed an extra point. The extra point would’ve put San Francisco up by nine points late in the fourth quarter. The 37-yard field goal would’ve iced the win for the 49ers inside the two-minute mark.
He’s now missed four kicks this season and two extra points. His misses Saturday were his first inside of 50 yards all year.
While Saturday’s game might’ve been frustrating from the kicker, he was the most accurate kicker in the league his first two years in the Bay Area. He missed eight kicks last season, but a number of them came while the 49ers were working through issues with their long-snapper.
Gould carries a $5.25 million cap hit next year if the 49ers exercise their club option. That’d make him the most expensive kicker in the league. If the team believes Saturday wasn’t the start of a trend and that he’ll regain his place as one of the league’s best kickers, the sizable cap hit would be well worth having a player they know they can rely on at that spot.
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