For much of the offseason, we have broadcast the 49ers’ right guard position battle as a challenge between Spencer Burford, who watched the job slip through his fingers last season, and Jon Feliciano, the man who took his job. In the meantime, we’ve logged third-round rookie Dominick Puni as a promising name to watch if he breaks out in training camp.
According to Cam Inman of The Mercury News, Puni’s time may be coming up sooner than expected. This revelation comes as Puni’s competition, Burford and Feliciano, both deal with injuries so far in training camp. Burford has suffered a fractured right hand, an ailment that could require surgery. If Burford undergoes surgery, that could keep him out for a bit of training camp, if not longer.
Feliciano has been dealing with a knee issue in recent days. The nine-year veteran has been preparing for what he has announced to be his final NFL season. As an experienced starter, Feliciano could just be playing it safe, getting the benefit of the doubt from coaches while making sure he’ll be ready for the regular season. The more time Feliciano sits out, though, the more first-team reps he’ll be allowing for his competition. Regardless of the position battle, Feliciano’s status last year as the sixth-man of the offensive line makes his health paramount at the moment.
With both Burford and Feliciano out, it’s been Puni taking those first-team reps. The team has praised Puni’s versatility after the Kansas-product made a strong first impression this spring. Offensive line coach Chris Foerster has lauded Puni’s strong frame and intelligence as he makes the adjustment to the NFL game.
Here are a couple of other injury updates from the Bay Area:
- In more positive injury news, former All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga is recovering well in his return from a torn ACL. With Week 1 as a targeted return date, Hufanga is seemingly on track. Inman reports that Hufanga is expected to make his practice debut in mid-August around the time that the team will be taking part in joint practices with the Saints. With Hufanga sidelined, Ji’Ayir Brown and George Odum have been running with the first-team defense with Malik Mustapha, Tayler Hawkins, and Erik Harris all providing quality depth.
- Another positive update, rookie first-round wide receiver Ricky Pearsall reportedly has a strong chance to make his training camp debut on Monday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Pearsall has missed training camp so far with a hamstring injury, and while it’s not a guarantee that he’ll make is return next week, it’s a positive step in the right direction.
Any day closer to seeing Hufanga play is positive for the 9ers. He was a revelation before being hurt. Not much more to say.
I think that if it’s close, Puni will end up starting. Feliciano has been hurt, as the article states, and has experience coming off the bench. If Feliciano does start, I think that there’s a very high chance of Puni seeing a lot of snaps in relief or slowly assuming the job as the season goes on. The 9ers are in the enviable position of having a young player who coukd assume a lot of playing time when they desperately need some rookie contracts taking on starting jobs. If Williams decides to hold out for more money (again), having good, cheap contracts on the line will give San Fran more options to deciding what to do with their vets.