Raheem Mostert has been an under-the-radar outstanding player for the 49ers the past two seasons. On Sunday, his presence could be a huge part of the team’s bid to leave Arrowhead Stadium with a victory.
Kansas City speedster Tyreek Hill is one of the most dangerous players in the NFL. In addition to being a big-play threat at wide receiver, Hill has returned four punts for touchdowns in his 33-game career, including one this season.
“Tyreek Hill is as good as anyone in this league every time he touches the ball, whether it’s at running back, receiver, punt returner, kick returner,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said on “49ers Game Plan,” which airs on NBC Bay Area (Ch. 3) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
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“It does not matter. He’s got a chance to score every time. It really helps when you have, in my opinion, the best gunner in the league.”
Mostert is the 49ers’ best special-teams player and leads the NFL with six special-teams tackles. He might not be the only answer the 49ers have in their quest to keep Hill in check, but if punter Bradley Pinion gives him a returnable punt, Mostert can erase the mistake.
It’s a matchup of speed versus speed. According to the 49ers, Mostert was clocked last week at 23.68 mph running down the field. Hill’s top speed, as tracked by Zebra, the NFL’s on-field player-tracking provider, was 23.24 mph.
“He can get down there as good as anyone,” Shanahan said of Mostert. “And he’s fearless and he’ll run through someone, legally, and usually make that play.”
San Francisco 49ers
Mostert said he has been studying Hill and detected a number of different moves that he can use to make the first person miss.
“He’s got short-area quickness,” Mostert said. “You could put him in a phone booth, and he’ll can still make somebody miss. You have to be careful.”
Good as Gould
Robbie Gould broke the 49ers record last week with his 30th consecutive made field-goal attempt. The league record is 44, which Adam Vinatieri set in 2015 and ’16.
In a league in which kickers are losing their jobs every week, Gould, 35, is still going strong in his 14th NFL season. He was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week after kicking three field goals and setting the club record for consecutive kicks in a 30-27 win over the Detroit Lions.
“You’ve got to be mentally tough and have a team that believes in you and will stick with you until you figure it out a little bit,” Gould said. “I was lucky enough to have that with Chicago when I was young. But I think the biggest thing is, teams want to win and they want to win now. When you’re young, you’re going to make mistakes. Things are going to happen and you just have to come back and rebound from it.”
Gould ranks the places he’s kicked -- Chicago, New York and Santa Clara -- as three of the most difficult in the NFL because of the weather conditions. He said the wind is constantly shifting at Levi’s Stadium.
This ‘n’ that
The last time Shanahan went to Arrowhead Stadium, he said, was in 1997 when it was his job to hold the cord for his father’s headset. Kyle Shanahan’s father, Mike, coached the Denver Broncos to a 14-10 victory over the Chiefs that day. “That was the last year that people were holding cords,” Shanahan said of the NFL’s conversion to wireless headsets. The Broncos ended up defeating the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. “I was the last guy to hold cords in the Super Bowl,” Shanahan said. “That’s my claim to fame.” ...
The NFL fined Lions running back LeGarrette Blount $10,026 for coming off the sideline to level 49ers linebacker Elijah Lee after Lee hit Matthew Stafford near the sideline on Sunday. Stafford did not run out of bounds. Lee was not penalized or fined for the play. ...
Shanahan said it is likely that cornerback Richard Sherman will have a reduced practice schedule this season. Left tackle Joe Staley already has a scheduled day off from practice every week. “Anybody right at that 30 age, we try to change their practice schedule a little bit,” Shanahan said. “Once you hit that 30 mark, from a starting point, we don’t always like to practice you all three days. Some guys we do, it depends on how much they go and stuff. But, as the year gets going, not just Sherm but anyone really over 30, will probably be having their practice schedule altered.”