SANTA CLARA – Skyy Moore smiled and gritted his teeth at his locker Sunday in Cleveland, having done the same two weeks earlier after another scintillating effort as the 49ers’ return specialist.
One of these returns, he vows, will end up in the end zone. It’s always the goal, of course, but even more so since reporters filled him in earlier this season about the 49ers’ historic struggles in the return game.
They have not had a punt return for a touchdown since the 2011 season opener, by Ted Ginn Jr., who amazingly also scored on a kick return that game. Only one other kick return since then has gone the distance, that being one by Richie James in 2018.
“That’s what I’m chasing,” Moore said. “Whatever comes between that, I’ll take it.”
His 66-yard punt return Sunday set up the 49ers’ first touchdown in an eventual 26-8 rout of the Browns, which cast the 49ers (9-4) into their long-awaited bye week.
Two weeks earlier, Moore returned Arizona’s opening kickoff 98 yards to also spark a road victory and embolden his stature.
“This entire year, any time he gets the ball, I just love the way he hits it,” running back Christian McCaffrey said. “You know, he’s built for this team. He plays with zero hesitation.”
Moore arrived in an August trade with the Kansas City Chiefs, in which the 49ers sent a 2027 sixth-round pick but also got back a 2027 seventh-rounder.
Ball security was an initial issue, as he muffed a punt return in the season opener. But not so much now, especially after he sure-handed Sunday’s duties in chilly, windy Cleveland, where the Browns muffed a punt return and had a kick returner step out of bounds at their 5-yard line.
Moore returned the opening kickoff just 24 yards, but less than five minutes later, he was zooming 66 yards to the Browns’ 16-yard line on his first punt return. Six plays later, McCaffrey scored on a 1-yard run and the 49ers were up 7-0.
Moore said he is vividly seeing running lanes, due in part to his blockers.
“I’m in that zone,” Moore said. “We’re getting better as a unit.”
He is so consumed with trying to snap the 49ers’ touchdown drought on punt returns that, after Sunday’s game, he thought he had a great chance to score on his third return, if only the Browns’ punter had kicked it longer than 43 yards. “If he would have kicked it five more yards, I was gone, because they blocked it perfect,” Moore said.
His 66-yard return was the longest of his four-year career, having spent the previous three seasons with the Chiefs. It was the 49ers’ longest punt return since Ginn reeled off a 78-yarder in 2010 at St. Louis.
“It’s good to see him break for some of these long ones,” McCaffrey said, “because for the whole first half of the year we were like, ‘He’s hitting it the right way.’ Every time the ball is in his hands, he’s playing with no hesitation. He’s fast, and he’s physical, and he runs really hard. We knew it was just a matter of time before some of these big ones were gonna start to hit, and he’s been doing a hell of a job putting us in a great position.”
Quarterback Brock Purdy concurred and summed up Moore’s value by twice stating: “He’s the man.”
Moore ranks fifth in the NFL with a 28.1-yard average per kick return, and 10th among punt returners with his 12.1-yard average per punt.
“Skyy’s been awesome. We keep saying we’ve been feeling him for a while now, getting better and better,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Every time he gets the ball, we feel he’s got a chance to go.”
Moore has yet to score on a return for the first such touchdown of his career. But his 5-foot-10, 195-pound frame is determined to keep trying.
“I watch Skyy hit those as hard as anyone and a lot of times I’m worried about him getting up after it. But he continues to do that, continues to play with physicality and doesn’t hesitate and kind of embraces it,” SHanahan said. “And when you have that skillset, with that mindset, it ends up being hard not to be successful at it.”