SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Even now, four years removed from the last time he ran an offense that struggled to consistently make field goals, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan carries the memories of missed kicks past.

“Yeah, [I have] some scars,” Shanahan said.

Who could blame him for using those scars as a reminder? In a league in which a costly missed field goal in a close-and-late situation seems to happen weekly, Shanahan was once the architect of offenses that ran the missed field goal play almost as much as the outside zone (not that the misses were his fault, of course).

In two seasons with Shanahan as offensive coordinator in Houston, the Texans made 76.9 percent of their field goals, which ranked 28th in the NFL in that span. When Shanahan ran the Washington offense, it converted 75.8 percent of field goals from 2010 to 2013, the worst in the NFL in that period. In Shanahan's one year in charge of Cleveland's offense, the Browns hit 78.1 percent of their field goal attempts, also 28th in the NFL.

Combined, kickers on teams for which Shanahan called plays in his first seven years made 175 of a possible 229 field goal attempts, a 76.4 percent conversion rate that would rank dead last in the NFL and well below the league average of 83.7 percent for those seven seasons.

It wasn't until Shanahan took over as Atlanta's offensive coordinator with kicker Matt Bryant in 2015 and 2016 that his kicking concerns began to dissipate. Now, two years into his tenure as the Niners' head coach, kicking field goals doesn't even qualify for the long list of things Shanahan has to worry about.

He has kicker Robbie Gould to thank for that.

"Besides [Bryant], I’ve always thought we had to get to the 20 before I wanted to not go for it," Shanahan said. "Robbie’s changed that.”

Upon taking the job as San Francisco's head coach in 2017, Shanahan and general manager John Lynch made Gould one of their first free-agent signings. Gould had been one of the most accurate kickers in league history before a downturn in 2014 and 2015 led to his sudden and surprising parting of ways with the Chicago Bears.

Gould needed just 11 games with the New York Giants to show that he could still get the job done at a high level. He converted all 12 of his field goal tries in New York, and the Niners handed him a two-year, $4 million contract on March 9, 2017.

Since then, Gould has been even better than he was at his best in windy Chicago, making 72 of 75 field goals the past two seasons. That 96 percent conversion rate is best in the NFL the past two seasons, and only the Rams and Ravens have tried more field goals in that time. That percentage, along with his 96.1 percent conversion rate from 2016-17, are the two highest percentages in NFL history for a two-year span (with a minimum of 32 attempts).

All of that is why, as the Niners and the NFL head toward the start of free agency in March, Gould is the team's best and most important in-house free agent.

“Of course we want Robbie back," Shanahan said. "He’s been great for two years. It’s nice for a coach, that ... I’m not thinking about him missing [kicks] at all.”

As the 49ers head toward an offseason in which they figure to have somewhere in the vicinity of $60 million in cap space, they have few pressing issues when it comes to re-signing their key players.

San Francisco has exclusive rights to Gould until the early negotiating window opens on March 11. The 49ers have said they'd like to keep him, and initial discussions are underway and expected to pick up steam moving forward. For his part, Gould has said he'd like to stay, but it might not be quite so simple.

While Gould has said he has a "strong feeling" to return to the 49ers, there figure to be plenty of suitors looking for a reliable kicker. A return to Chicago, where Gould's family still lives, became a hot-button topic after Bears kicker Cody Parkey's potential playoff-game-winning field goal was tipped and missed off the left upright and crossbar.

That miss came after two seasons without Gould, in which Bears kickers have made just 75 percent of their field goals, ranking 30th in the league. Gould was even in attendance at the NFC wild-card game, watching Parkey's miss from a suite. The Bears would have to take a cap hit to part with Parkey, but it's something they will have to consider. Still, Gould's departure from Chicago wasn't exactly on good terms, and it remains to be seen if Chicago would be willing to pay the price and publicly admit its mistake in letting the kicker leave in the first place.

If Gould hits the open market, the interest would be abundant.

"It’s probably been the best two-year stretch I’ve had in my career, one of the best in the history of the game, and that happens with a lot of great people, right?" Gould said. "... It just kind of worked since I’ve been here. And it’s been pretty easy. So the organization checks a lot of boxes for me."

If the Niners and Gould can't come to terms on a new contract? Well, the 49ers have the franchise tag in their pocket, a tag that will likely come with something close to a $5 million price for 2019.

While that's undoubtedly a lot of money, it's a bargain if it means the kicking scars of Shanahan's past can remain a distant memory.