Matt Maiocco just tweeted the 49ers are signing kicker Billy Cundiff. The 49ers are keeping David Akers as well according to Maiocco. The two kickers will compete in practice for playing time.
Cundiff played the first five games of this season with the Washington Redskins. He missed five of 12 field goal attempts, so they cut him.
Last season, Cundiff made 32 of 42 kicks for the Baltimore Ravens. He also missed a kick in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship, a kick that would have sent the Ravens to the Super Bowl, so they cut him.
Do you think the 49ers made a good move signing Cundiff and keeping Akers? Why or why not?
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Off topic but I would like your guys opinion on this. Do the 9ers run the most basic pass routs? It seems like when they go deep its only one guy. it doesn’t seem like they do to hard of combination routes and when they do its with DW and VD, usually running wheel routes. To me this doesnt seem too hard to cover. You guys who watch a lot of film this question is for you
Yes any change is good now. It will help akers calm down a little, I hope. I wonder who has the stronger leg.
Oh yeah, great move. Now we have TWO kickers we can’t count on. It really wasn’t much of a competition, was it?
Maybe if we rotate them at kicker we’ll have a chance to make every field goal like last year =]
Sign a guy who choked in giving his team a chance to compete for a Super Bowl, uh no thanks! What was it a 30 yarder? Better to ride it out with Akers. Harbaugh waited too long.
To expect a guy who has not played in an NFL game in 10 weeks and come in a pressure packed situation of the playoffs and perform is unrealistic. Then again it is the NFL and no better way to prove yourself I guess.
Weren’t you saying something similar about the quarterback before the NE game?
jack,
I thought he said thar before the Bear game! Lol.
And I still say Harbaugh waited too long to make the QB switch. If he felt CK gave them a better chance to win, make the switch before the bye to give CK more seasoning. As we are seeing the management portion of games he is failing miserably. Timeouts, delay of games, all of this should not be happening to an offense this late in the year.
Now Jack, how bout that vacation, flights are pretty cheap across the US and into Canada. What’s the matter, Niner chatter not paying so well?
Harbaugh doesn’t make major shake ups unless he is forced into it by injury. That’s part of why they have stuck with Akers when every indication was they need to move on.
The interesting part about this offense, is that despite the struggles with time management, etc, they are still scoring at close to the same rate per drive as they did during the first half of the season.
And I don’t take vacations. Waste of time.
Vacations a waste of time? That’s the cheapest thing I have ever heard Jack!
If you do it right Prime, every day is like a vacation. ; )
Prime – Well said
Prime – My reply was to your comments about our kicker situation.
Lets face it you so-called fans do not like anything that Harbaugh does. Maybe you should watch the Faiders they really have a super coaching staff. Sounds like you would fit right in.
Prime. Just out of curiosity how do you plan to pay me my 100
707 – How is your girl doing today?
She owes you one! :)
Hey Crab
I didn’t know Prime was Adam’s girl.
Nick – No no no you jokester :)…..707 said his girlfriend was tanked last night and he had to take care of her.
Happy New Year bro!
Happy new year Crab.
Haha she is fine. It was a rookie mistake.
If the offense is about the same, then why make the switch? I don’t think anyone expected it to be the same, they expected better results.
While Crabs may have emerged as a weapon, VD has disappeared. Maybe the O is the same because all the weapons are now out for the season? I don’t think Alex had a great arm, but I would say he did manage the game for the most part. In the beginning of the year everyone was raving about how he made good pre-snap adjustments for the run game.
The problem now is CK, but the switch at QB has creative an ID issue for what the Offense should be. This should either have been done in the beginning of the year, or not at all.
My guess is this is money issue, not a performance issue. If the Niners go all the way with Smith, how do you keep him at 8 million?
I don’t think anyone expected Smith to be adequate, and he was actually getting better and finding a groove, dinking and dunking his way to a high completion %. But hey that’s what they said about Tom Brady and his spread offense, too.
In that sense, I agree with the switch for the long term. But this whole hot hand stuff is all smoke and mirrors.
Imagine if the Niners got Peyton Manning? Man they could potentially do a three-peat! Maybe they should have paid him!
Oops — meant to say the problem isn’t CK….
Fan,
here’s the difference in the offense.
1. We are averaging 3 more points a game. ( Despite the fact that our kicker can’t hit the side of a barn.
2. We are averaging 20-30 yards a game more in passing.
3. Please tell me that you are seeing more explosive passing plays from Kap? When is the last time you’ve seen us gain a 1st down on 3rd and 12 with Smith at QB.
4. Kap certainly threatens the entire field. Smith was NEVER able to do that.
5. The short passes from Smith simply wasn’t going to cut it in Harbaughs mind.
6. Consider the fact that Kap played the toughest part of our schedule. ( New England, Seattle at home, New Orleans, Bears, Rams twice ( Rams were 4-1-1 in the division)
7. Our being sacked is considerably down. We had more explosive. Plays and plays over 20 yards.
8. Vernon’s play was erratic under Smith and Walker was invisible. Delaney is clearly playing better and Kap targeted Vernon when he was supposed to. The bears have the slowest inside linebackers in football.
9. I don’t think anyone on this board can say with any certainty that Smith would have outperformed Kap. If the effort was the same, ( Which it is not IMO) then the switch has not hurt.
I certainly don’t believe the change had anything to do with money. $8 mil is peanuts to pay a starter in the NFL. However, if the production is the same, why give Smith 8 mil next years when Kap gives you the same for 1 mil.
Now the salaries don’t matter this year because Smith is getting paid the same, playing or not. So it makes no sense for JH to make the switch to save money this year. Smiths numbers for the most part, were the same this year as last. He had a higher QB rating because his completion percentage was higher. But the yards per game were the same and the TD’s and Ints were comparable. His yards per pass were higher but it didn’t affect his total yardage output.
Simply put, JH knew that we needed more. We needed Smith to Pick up chunk yardage. Make big plays with his feet. Needed him to threaten the entire field. we needed the defense to play us honest. We have that now with Kap. Perfect example was our 1st scoring drive yesterday. A 30 yard pass in the middle of the field to Crabs( No YAC) Then a 50 yard touchdown pass to Crabs ( 10 yards of YAC). I not seen Smith make either throw in 3 years. If you have, call me on it.
If you think JH made the wrong move, tell me where Kap hurt us where Smith could’ve helped us in these last 7 games. The fumbled snaps didn’t hurt us. We’ve not lost any of them. We’ve lost a few timeouts but coach says that was in the team, not JUST Kap. Sunday, we had no such issues. It happened once. It happened with Smith once a game too. So really what are we really missing from Smith?
Fan – Crabtree may have emerged as a weapon?
Ya think?
Neal – Please keep an eye on this one.
I thought you weren’t a stats guy Jordo? I guess it is just when it works for you! Lol. If all that is true what you wrote, then why is it nfl.com has us at 6 in their power poll? I would of thought the reason would be because of the unknown of JS. Wrong! It’s because of Kap. Is decision making and game management is their reasoning. To me, those 2 things come way before your numbers. It’s more in line with what you see on the field when you watch the game. Ain’t that what you go by?
That said, Charlie Casserly is picking 9ers/Broncos Super Bowl! Denver has to show me they can beat a good team first. They haven’t done that. I’m going with NE!
His decision making. Damn phones!
MM — You see plus-20 yard plays on the field and an exploding Crab and a productive Walker and a QB who doesn’t take sacks. That’s what Kaep gives you, but not Alex.
HaHa Crabby,I always liked Crab,with Texas Teck and even though he struggled for a few years,happy for
him that he is healthy
MontanaMan,
Who the hell cares what the power rankings say. Does that Somehow determine who the Super Bowl champion will be. What matters is what happens on the field. I was responding to Fan77′s post. Clearly, Kaps numbers must have somehow upset you. Let it go Momtana. I know it’s not easy. We’ll see how the team does when it’s game time. We will chat again in 2 weeks. Don’t be afraid to come on the blog when Kap wins his 1st playoff game in his 1st season.
23Jor–
It’s still the defense that is winning the games. The yards are the about the same, but CK is more inconsistent. Dinking and dunking and running the ball more shortened the game. Granted Alex has his share of 3 and outs too, so this is about philosophy of what kind of Offense the Niners should be.
With CK, the offense tried to evolve with mixed results.
I’m not a Smith lover. I don’t like that kind of offense either. My comment was more based on how the team is built to win now, and there seems to be very little upside for the risks involved. 3 points a game is not that much.
One thing you’re right on is our sacks are way down. On the ugly test that’s where Smith was by far the worse.
The indentity of the Niners was a running team, and that’s gone down, for a variety of reasons.
I was posing a hypothetical that maybe there’s more to the switch than just numbers and the hot hand.
This is a very disconcerting situation. With the expectations that the D is going to tighten up, and play “playoff caliber” defense, field goals can, and probably will be the difference in moving on or not. Scary going into the playoffs without anyone you can rely on. Also, on a side note, A Lee has been used to holding for the left footed Akers for a couple of years now. How is he going to handle switching to other side. Hopefully not that big of a deal, but a botched place hold is same as a Akers miss.
I didn’t think of that issue: switching from left to right could be an issue. I’d hate for a botched snap to cost us a chance at the Super Bowl.
With only being able to dress 46 on gameday having an extra kicker isn’t a bad thing. Let them battle it out and the best one will be active for the game.
But… Cundiff? If he was the best available I’m going to start practicing kicks.
Do you think the Harbaugh brothers are competitive enough that John would tell Jim “oh yeah, Billy is great!” just in case they meet in the Super Bowl?
Sounds like Andy Reid is about to become the newest HC in the NFC West.
Yeah, I saw the ticker on ESPN at the gym earlier today. Reid may be what Zona needs – an offensive minded coach. The NFC West will get tougher with Ried in the desert.
He’s an idea: how about the niners just score a few touchdowns and this whole conversation is moot.
Hopefully this move will get Akers back on track!
IMO Cundiff was brought in to kick longer field goals and also for touch backs. Something is tong with Akers physically and mentally. He doesn’t have the leg strength he had in the early season an the injury he has is lingering. Now it’s affecting his confidence. Go back and look at his kickoffs yesterday. They were ll short, no touch backs. He wasn’t even getting the ball into the end zone on his kickoffs. On the missed field goals yesterday, they were long enough to be good if try had been on line, but they were still short.
I think Harbaugh keeps them both unless Akers wakes up. Akers will ake anything inside of 38 yards. Cundiff will miss those. Akers is hurt, his leg strength is shot. Notice also how he keeps getting run into by the opponents players. It happened again yesterday.
*wrong. the iPad is killing me!
23J – I think Harbs should stick with Fakers, I still believe in him for some reason. His funk is going away soon.
Dude needs to wack down a six-pack of Lagunitas IPA’s night before playoff game, to ease the tension.
He doesn’t have to play, he just has to kick.
I’d be worried that if he whacked down that six of IPA, all he might do is pee.
His problem is not leg strength Jordon. He kicked a 54 yard kick in Seattle. He was kicking 55+ pre game versus the Cards. He was reaching the end zone for kickoffs.
When he tried the 40-43 yarder in the game he barely reached the goal posts. It’s cause he isn’t kicking the ball, he’s struggling so badly that he is trying to guide it in. He’s lost because his confidence is lost.
I praise Harbaugh for having the sack to make the bold moves.
Bay,
But you saw the kickoffs bro. they were all short. One was at around the 10yard line. I saw the kicks in pregame. Thats the problem. It was pregame.
When he lost his confidence in Philly, it didn’t come back overnight. I say we go with what I prescribed. Let Akers kick field goals inside of 38. Cundiff handles kickoffs and long field goals.
If he is a headcase then hell figure out how to screw up a 38 yarder too.
23J – So Akers and Cundiff are going to have a “kickoff’” in practice? Sorry not Comedy Club material.
Jordan
I don’t think it was his confidence in Philly. He had a lot on his mind during the playoffs while with them(daughter diagnosed with cancer & lost a lot of money in a ponzi scheme.)
Philly,
Youre right, I do remember that. I believe all that definitely affected him. I just don’t know where he is right now mentally. There might be something else personal on his mind.
Crabs,
That kick contest would be interesting to watch. However, there is not much pressure in practice unless you are kicking for your job!
I know I must be sounding like the guy’s cousin or something, but I still think we should have given Georgio Tavecchio a look.
Strong young prospect, pretty successful record I believe.
Wouldn’t have cost us a thing to watch him kick a few.
Just sayin.
An excellent choice!
Signed,
The New England Patriots
Yeah, I thought it was a terrible sign if they actually want to let him play. However, if it’s someone that they just want to bring in to motivate Akers then I guess why not.
But hey if they’re going to do that why not bring in Giorgio Tavecchio to provide that same motivation and also be someone who could be up and coming instead of another team’s garbage.
What do I know? I’m just a couch coach. :-D
Looking ahead, I’m hoping Vikings beat Pack again.
Reason: Our playoff game is Saturday, January 12 @5:00pm at stick. As you all know, if Vikes win we play winner of Skins vs Hawks and they play Sunday.
Skins or Hawks would have a short week (5 days) to rest/prepare for Niners.
However, I wouldn’t mind kickin the crap out of G.B.
Yeah if the Skins win, they have to travel across country on a short week too.
Fan77 – Yes Skins could be an easier game for us but revenge on Hawks/Pete Carrol would be sweeter.
Minnesota hasn’t won an outdoor game yet this year tho. Don’t know if they can do it! That’s good thinking tho!
In all seriousness, does anyone on here really believe Coach Harbaugh would put in Cundiff over Akers? He is using Brain Control, laying eggs in Akers mind….
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. At least…my hopes exactly. As much as Akers has struggled I wouldn’t trust Cundiff in there at all.
Did anyone notice the “Bad Idea” T-shirt banner add below archive/categories tabs? Lol
Now the add is gone? Rotating adds I guess.
I don’t think that what Akers need is motivation. He is a consummate professional and at this age if he does not have motivation nothing can give it to him.
Didn’t Akers make his last kick? Its a start…Overall this could be a good thing for the offense. Less conservative playcalling in the redzone since we have a suspect kicker.
It sounds like you have one guy that needs to be recalled and then you buy another guy who is on recall too. Ryan Longwell was a damn good kicker, big mistake from Coach Mooch to let him go, sounds like he wants to stay retired.
Hawaii has a receiver named Justin Clapp, if he ended up on Niners? We’d have VD, Crabs and the Clapp.
LOL why does this make my groin itch?
I’d take DShaw over CKelly for an NFL HC job. Plus he’s good with the media. He’ll be in the NFL within 3 years (probably sooner).
I agree about Shaw.
Harbaugh sure left his philosophy with Shaw though. Stanford jumped out 14-0 and then squatted on the lead to eek out the win.
Both are good but DShaw seems to have more of a traditional NFL pro offense. He may even be better than JH.
You know its sad when I googled Billy Cundiff the first thing that comes up is Billy Cundiff missed field goal. I guess you can’t expect much options in week 17 before the playoffs. I hope Akers gets his confidence back… If Cundiff missed a 20 yard kick to send the Ravens to the superbowl there is no telling what he would do. Akers at least is money from 30 yds and in.
No he is not. He missed a 29 yarder not long ago. The only “money” that Akers is producing is sales in depends, while I sit on my couch sh!ting everytime he goes to kick anything other than an extra point.
Akers has made 127- 129 field goals from 29 yards and in. That’s about as “money” as you can get. He also made 11-13 from 39 yards and in this year. His problem has been 40+ where he is 7-13. If its a game winning kick from 29 yards and up id trust Akers over Cundiff anyday.
Sure, let’s take up two roster spots with two kickers – yep, makes a ton of sense when the DL is thin going into the playoffs.
I hope Arizona does sign Andy Reid, his best days are behind him. I like Reid but he’s been through too much to rejuvenate an NFL franchise. The death of his son and the brutal Philly fans have battered him, he’s timeworn. He needs a year or two off to regroup.
Andy won 9.3 games per season in Philly. There is a very strong tendency for coaches to not do as well with their second team as they did with their first (Belichick is the most notable exception) and a similar tendency for coaches to not do as well after 10 seasons in the league.
Sounds like a good deal for us, although G Roman would have been better.
While Andy Reid is an attractive prospect for Az, I think the team promotes Ray Horton to HC.
I’ve read much speculation like that coming out of ‘sources near the Team’. You never know how much credence to give to those.
To me it seems they have the defensive talent assembled already. They need a coach to come in and kick start some offensive productivity. Reid will draft some OL and draw up a passing attack. Certainly a coach of Reid’s vast experience and stature in the League knows how to hire a competent Defensive Co-Ordinator to run that side of the team……oh, wait…….
I was glad to see Stanford represent well for The West in Primetime. The Badgers played hard though.
Tuna – Lou Holtz basically guaranteed Badger victory. Lol
Ya the cundiff deal wasnt a very good one. I cringe everytime David Akers goes up to kick a field goal next years draft should be looking at field goal kickers for the long haul.Akers for now its been this long
What ever happen to the kid in pre-season, he didnot miss a kid,Giorgio Tavecchio, he was only 22. instead of these old bags that have mental iisues.
In other news Andy Reid is close to signing as the head coach of the Cardinals which would firmly cement the NFC west as the best coached division in the NFL. This division is already a tough division soon it will be absolutely murderous… were going to find out just how good Harbaugh is real quick as St. louis is already a tough out for us, same w/ Seattle and now Arizona gets Reid… wow.
Reid is too stubborn with Kolb. If he’s in, Alex might not have a home in Arizona after all.
I hope Alex is our backup.
Drs,
Alex is not going to accept that role. Many feel like he can start somewhere next year. I’m sure he’d rather start than be a backup.
Would like to say that I also called that move. Wheeew!
Shoupbj:
Looks perfect for us. Coaches good enough to spur Harbaugh on, particularly Carroll. However, the average wins per season for these coaches is: Reid 9.3; Carroll 8.3; Fisher 7.1. This ought to give us an edge.
As to the Akers deal its a tough call. He is a better kicker than Billy Cundiff but right now he has a mental block. And while I don’t trust Cundiff to make a game winning kick for us, right now I want someone I can trust to make a 40 yrd field goal in the second quarter with nothing on the line. We really need to get something out of that position… at least enough to get us into the position of needing to make a game winning kick.
What I don’t understand is… there wasn’t even rookie fa who didn’t make a team I’d be more willing to give them a shot than Cundiff
I suspect Harbaugh is thinking that Akers problem is focus.
However, if he ends up going on 4th down inside the 40 till he gets to the 20 because he doesn’t trust his kicker over 39 yards, I think that would be good for us.
It has been hard to see Akers decline after only one season. Last year he was ‘lights out’ and an argument could certainly be made that he kicked us into some wins.
His issues seem to be more mental than physical, but obviously, a combination of these two can be devastating to a player.
I may be wrong, but it seems that the majority of Akers’ misses have been to the left of the goal post. To compensate for this it would make sense for him to adjust his aim at the right goal post, but hey, it has to be much easier said than done.
Like a few here have commented, I hope that the signing of Cundiff will ignite a fire under DA. I keep waiting for DA to shake off his ‘funk’ and hopefully it happens during the playoffs.
To pin our success on a kicker is really not what is needed to win a trophy.
We have enough weapons and a good QB to get this done, the play calling needs to stay fresh and ahead of the opponent {and also ahead of the play clock expiration}
We’ve got Celek/ VD/ Buttafingas Walker/ 15/ Gore/Miller/AJ {who should never catch in the middle so that he don’t get deflated} there is enough here to get quality TD’s by catching and running.
Really hope the WC playbook is about to get the tarp pulled back and reveal the HOT sportscar that it is underneath
Sled,
I would hope that the Superbowl (expecting 49ers vs Denver) is not decided by a field goal, but the possibility exist especially in a close game.
I believe 4 SB’ have been decided/won by field goals. One by the NYG’ two by the Patriots, and one by the old Baltimore Colts.
Kickers are an important asset to the game simply because they have a special skill that no other player on the roster can perform.
We happen to need ours to start performing, and I believe he will.
The point is and has been that, if you have a great defense, putting points on the board is critical. While TD’s are obviously more effective, points are important either way. If the game comes down to a 30 yard field goal, you need to feel confident that your kicker can make it.
It’s only the Smithers that for some reason are insisting that we let Akers stay and play.
The Smithers forget that last year Akers carried this teams scoring.
Had Akers been responsible for costing the team and AS wins last year, the Smithers would have been up in arms for him to be replaced.
There are folks that would like to see the Niners fail to prove that the Kaep replacing Smith move was a mistake. It is that same group that is being vocal about keeping Akers as the teams kicker.
It’s this same group that likes to talk about AS beating the Seahawks at home last year. But if you look at that game, Akers had 4 field goals. Had he missed one of those, we lose the game. My point is, we need to go another direction with the kicker NOW.
Completely off topic, but what was the number of wins the Niners were predicted to win in that all seeing mathmatical equation? Was it 9 or 7?
They were projected to go 7-9. 7.2 to be exact.
I had them at 12, but thought I might be crazy, so I hedged to 11.
49er released Bakhtiari to open up the roster spot for Cundiff. Goodbye once again!
Niners will lose the first playoff game.
seattlle 50 niners 0
Kap gets pulled in the second quarter for Alex as he has given the ball away 7 times.
I think you’re right mr troll! Thank you for the breakdown!
How about your Redskins/Seahawk prediction first? Kind of gettng ahead of yourself there, bub! LOL
Also for that to happen the Vikings would have to beat the packers in green bay
This clown isn’t a Seahawks fan. It’s a Smither. And I’ll guess onelame or bs. The whole stupid comment is only about CK. pathetic!
Ray Lewis will retire. Great career. One of the greatest ever. I hope Willis and Bowman will be in the same Sentence as him one day.
Roman needs to put a first series strategy together to get easy completions. This will accomplish two things. First it will get Kaep in a rhythm, 2nd it will open up the running game.
Of the teams in the playoffs, only a couple of teams are mediocre at stopping the run. Everyone else is top twelve. The teams that can’t stop the run are the ones that I expect to exit the playoffs early.
Greenbay ranked 17th in defense against the run
Atlanta ranked 21st in stopping the run.
Indy ranked 29th stopping the run.
So while I believe we will have to run the ball to get to the big dance, I also believe that we will have to pass first to open it up. If we play Singletary ball and try to Gore up the middle our way to the superbowl, it will be a short tournament for us.
Akers or Cundiff? neither will be with the team next year.