This is the final installment of our eight-part series “State of the 49ers.” We assessed each position group and introduced solutions that could help the team on its Super Bowl hunt — continuing with special teams.
The headline of last year’s installment read like this: “The 49ers’ ‘don’t-screw-it-up’ mentality on special teams has done exactly that.”
Aside from coming off a dead-last 2024 finish in special teams, Kyle Shanahan’s team was still fighting the third-phase ghosts of Super Bowl 58. Special teams blunders — a muffed punt and a missed Jake Moody extra point — helped doom the 49ers in that devastating loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, which closed the 2023 season.
Moody’s struggles turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Shanahan ditched his blasé attitude regarding special teams last offseason. He fired coordinator Brian Schneider. He hired Brant Boyer to replace him and gave the guru wide rein to remake the NFL’s worst unit.
The turnaround, illustrated by specific ranks in expected points added (EPA), was rapid. Blue is good and red is bad in the table below.
How did Boyer produce such results so quickly, and how are the 49ers aiming to take another step forward in 2026? We’ll frame our analysis around the flurry of 49ers moves and their effect on the team’s EPA ranks.
Exiting 2024, the 49ers wasted little time cutting long-snapper Taybor Pepper and punter Mitch Wishnowsky. Veterans Jon Weeks and Thomas Morstead replaced them. And Moody, a third-round draft pick in 2023, was put on the shortest of leashes.
After missing two field goals in the season-opening win over the Seattle Seahawks, Moody was gone. The 49ers replaced him with Eddy Piñeiro, and the new kicker became the headliner of Boyer’s dramatic reversal.
Piñeiro made 28 of 29 field goals on the season. His only miss came from 64 yards out and clanged off the crossbar. Piñeiro endured some relatively odd struggles on extra points, going 34 of 38, but the 49ers managed to finish in the top 10 of placekicking EPA despite that and the black eye of Moody’s Week 1 performance.
Last month, the 49ers rewarded Piñeiro with a four-year contract worth up to $17 million, with $8 million fully guaranteed — the sixth-highest total among kickers. It seems that Piñeiro remains a bargain for the 49ers, especially considering that he boasts the second-highest field goal percentage of all time. (His performance on kickoffs, however, can improve — more on that later.)
All-time field goal percentage leaders
1. Cameron Dicker: 93.5%
2. Piñeiro: 89.7%
3. Justin Tucker: 89.1%
4. Harrison Butker: 88.4%
5. Brandon Aubrey: 88.2%
The 49ers didn’t enjoy nearly as big of a performance jump at punter, improving their punt EPA mark from No. 29 in 2024 to No. 23 in 2025. That’s why they’ve moved on from Morstead, who’s 40, and signed Corliss Waitman, who’s 30 and coming off a career season.
It doesn’t appear that the 49ers are done at punter, either. Boyer recently held a private meeting with Syracuse punter Jack Stonehouse, one of this season’s top college prospects, as the 49ers are reportedly (opens in new tab) planning to add offseason competition at the position.
It’s worth noting that Waitman is a rare left-footed punter, and that incentivizes the 49ers to bring in a right-footer at least for the practice purposes of returners. Doing so might be especially important this offseason, since the 49ers must replace leading return man Skyy Moore, who left in free agency to the Green Bay Packers.
Moore certainly wasn’t perfect — Shanahan publicly lamented his early-season inclination to catch punts inside the 5-yard line — but he didn’t give the ball away and infused the 49ers with newfound explosiveness, especially in the kick return game.
That said, the team has only one kick return for a touchdown in the Shanahan era. It came from Richie James in 2018. Moore came very close this past season to open the game against the Arizona Cardinals, but he couldn’t quite reach the end zone. And the 49ers’ punt return TD drought, the longest in the NFL, stretches back to 2011.
Might the 49ers draft a player who can rectify that? Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion, one of the team’s 30 pre-draft visits, returned two punts for touchdowns last season and could be a plug-and-play option. The 49ers didn’t trade for Moore until August of last year, so there’s still plenty of time to fill the returner position.
They’ve spent the first half of this offseason trying to solidify last year’s gains while also presumably recognizing that both of 2025’s coverage units (No. 23 and No. 21 in punt and kickoff return coverage, respectively) still have plenty of room for improvement.
The 49ers re-signed linebacker Luke Gifford, who made the Pro Bowl thanks to his special teams work, to a two-year deal. He led the team with 19 special teams tackles. Defensive back Siran Neal, whom Boyer recommended as a 2025 signing, registered 15 special teams tackles and remains under contract through 2026.
Most of the necessary improvement on kickoff and punt coverage can probably come through better performances from Piñeiro and whomever the 49ers select to be their punter.
Opponents’ average starting field position on Piñeiro kickoffs was past the 32-yard line — giving the 49ers the fifth-worst mark in the league. Piñeiro’s 20 touchbacks, eighth-most in the NFL, contributed significantly to that poor mark because a rule placed touchbacks at the 35-yard line. Simply put, Piñeiro must kick short of the goal line more often.
Areas for improvement in the punt coverage game are obvious in the numbers outlined above — a simple increase over Morstead’s average hang time (which ranked No. 21) should put the 49ers in better position to corral returners.
Shortcomings aside, the 49ers have manufactured undeniable momentum on special teams, and Boyer has earned the benefit of the doubt.
Consider that, cumulatively, the 49ers lost about 68 expected points of value on special teams in 2024. That’s a mind-numbing subtraction of 4 points per game. Conversely, they gained about 42 points of value in 2025 — an addition of about 2.5 points per game. So, on average, the 49ers were 6.5 points per game better on special teams last season.
In a league of tiny margins, that’s a remarkable boost. Boyer’s unit deserves a huge chunk of credit for salvaging a season that looked like it’d be wrecked by injuries. Special teams was indeed the difference in a handful of the 49ers’ 13 victories.
But it’s imperative that the 49ers keep their foot on the gas. Because even though they finished No. 2 in special teams EPA — a full 30 spots better than they did in 2024 — their demise in the playoffs was a reminder that there’s always room for improvement.
Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown against the 49ers, effectively sealing that game before either team took a snap from scrimmage.
The fact that the 49ers’ special teams failed them at the end of a turnaround season was ironic, yes, but it was also fitting. Why? Because only the Seahawks finished ranked ahead of them on special teams in 2025, and overcoming the Super Bowl champions in the standings might require overcoming them in this third phase of the game.
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