GT, one of the biggest mistakes the 49ere brass ever made was letting Jeff Wilkins go. It seemed like he beat us I don't know how many times and/or we lost because of some poor kicker.

I also don't understand why we have never been able to get a good kicker for any length of time.

Mike Vanderjagt, 8 years, Indy
Nate Kaeding, 8 years, SD
Rob Bironas, 8 years, Tenn.,
Robbie Gould, 8 years, Chicago
Stephen Gostkowski 7 years, NE
Adam Vinatieri, 10 years, NE
Phil Dawson, 14 years, Cleveland
John Kasay, 15 years, Carolina
Jason Elam, 15 years, Denver
Sebastian Janikowski, 13 years, Oakland

These guys are generally career 80%+ kickers (the league record for anyone if Vanderjagt at 86%). Do these teams have better kicking coaches? It can't be environment. Chicago, NE, and Cleveland would be terrible places to kick. It certainly isn't winning-team syndrome, as Cleveland and Oakland have been terrible for most of those years. Is it a problem with personnel? Half of these guys were undrafted. Whatever it is, the 49ers have been lousy and signing and retaining good young kickers. Wilkins was the last one we had who was good and we got at the start of his career. We let him walk about two years, of course. And kickers are generally not big-ticket players, especially early in their careers.