While the San Francisco 49ers are still trying to iron out a contract extension for Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey is talking about playing for a long time. But two lesser-known 49ers first-stringers are fighting for starting jobs they may be in danger of losing ahead of the 2024 NFL season.
Injuries have reared their ugly head for Spencer Burford and Talanoa Hufanga, and both players are seeing their starting days get a little more cloudy. Buford is a former fourth-round pick headed into his third NFL season. He started 29 of his 30 available games over his first two years.
As for Talanoa Hufanga, he started all 27 available games for the 49ers over the last two seasons. The fifth-round pick in 2021 had seven interceptions in those games.
49ers OL Spencer Burford fighting hand injury
Spencer Burford is still listed as the first-stringer at right guard. But offensive line coach Chris Foerster said there is no guarantee Burford will slot back in as a starter when he returns from a broken hand, according to sports.yahoo.com.
“We'll see when he gets there,” Foerster said. “I'm not going to go there and try to figure out what it looks like at that point. We don't know who will be up. You're saying if everybody stays healthy and Spencer comes back, odds are the guys that have been there.”
But … Foerster said Burford might get a shot.
“I'm not going to rule Spencer (Burford) out,” Foerster said. “You just don't know how it plays out.”
Certainly the 49ers don’t approach the offensive line the same way as other organizations. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said there’s a method to it, according to The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami via Sports Illustrated.
“I’m not too concerned about the ceiling,” Shanahan said. “I want to know if he’s going to be a starting left tackle, a starting left guard, whatever, a starting NFL player. And if you are a starting NFL lineman, I think we can have a good team with you.”
The reasoning is offensive linemen don’t score touchdowns.
“If we have a bunch of starting NFL linemen (and) there’s no one who can score points, we’re not going to have that good of an offense,” Shanahan said. “I’ve never been on a team that was favored to win every game the whole year before the season started. And we’ve been (listed as) that two years in a row. So what that tells me is people think we’ve got a really good roster. Well, if we were drafting only O-linemen, we wouldn’t have as good of a roster.”
Where does this leave Burford?
That philosophy probably helps a guy like Burford. Getting picked in the fourth round is higher in the 49ers organization than in an offensive-linemen-minded franchise. But as more preseason activities pass by with Burford on the sideline, that means more opportunities for Jon Feliciano and others. Feliciano got in the mix last year with seven starts along the line. So he’s a known commodity, but he’s hurt, too.
And that opened the door for Dominick Puni, who has shown good things and earned a voice in the conversation. How deep is Puni into the mix. He’s now considered the favorite to start at right guard. Shanahan confirmed it to ninersnation.com.
“Yeah, definitely,” Shanahan said. “Anytime somebody gets starter reps, it’s always open. You don’t just give it away and stuff, but it’s always an opportunity. People get opportunities, and you see how they take advantage of it. (Puni is) doing a hell of a job so far.”
Will Talanoa Hufanga lose starting safety spot?
Looking at Hufanga’s numbers over the last two seasons, it’s hard to imagine he won’t start at some point. He earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2022 before being limited to 10 games last year because of a torn ACL.
Hufanga isn’t ready to go, but Shanahan said he’s made progress, according to kget.com.
“(The doctor’s checkup) was good,” Shanahan said. “He cleared him for the next steps, which is that we can push him a little bit harder. Not against players, but more football stuff and those type of dynamic cuts and everything. Hopefully he has a real good week of it and we can talk about easing him into practice.”
And the player lurking in the secondary to take over the spot may be rookie Malik Mustapha. The fourth-round pick stood out during the 49ers first preseason game, including a stop on fourth and one to give the ball back to San Francisco.
“I loved how he played,” said Shanahan. “You could see how he did it on special teams. He had no hesitation. He's a hitter, but sometimes guys get in that first game and they slow down a little bit and he was the opposite.”
Shanahan said Mustapha shined in various phases of the game.
“He showed up on special teams,” Shanahan said. “He showed up on a third and two. They got to our middle third player, which usually is at least an explosive. And he met him at three yards, which is huge. The goal line stand was an unbelievable play. We had a missed assignment, so we had no edge player. So, he was actually the middle third guy and just filled it real fast in a blink and he knows how to hit. So, it was nice the guy went backward.”
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