San Francisco 49ers rookie must improve on obvious weakness to have a shot at starting year one
The San Francisco 49ers surprisingly waited until the third round of this year's draft to take an offensive lineman. Though they did not use a premium pick to acquire him, the Niners have been clear they have a lot of belief in the man they took to end that wait, expressing their view that Dominick […]
The San Francisco 49ers surprisingly waited until the third round of this year's draft to take an offensive lineman. Though they did not use a premium pick to acquire him, the Niners have been clear they have a lot of belief in the man they took to end that wait, expressing their view that Dominick Puni can play every position in the trenches.
General manager John Lynch said after night two of the draft:
"Our belief is that we’re going to start him on the inside as a guard. But the cool thing about Dominick is, it’s not often you can say this about a player, that he can play all five. And we believe that’s the case with him. He snapped in practice, he snapped in the Senior Bowl down in Mobile, played some center in the game, played left tackle in ’23, guard in the previous year. And so, we believe he has it in him, and that’s really a cool thing to have in a player. And he can do it at a high level. So, it’s part of the reason we moved up to take him there and really fired up about him. We liked the tape, liked the versatility and wanted to make him a Niner."
While the Niners were suitably impressed by Puni's film, which saw him go two seasons with Kansas without giving up a sack while switching from playing left guard in 2022 to starting at left tackle in 2023, his new offensive line coach Chris Foerster has quickly identified a clear area where improvement is needed if he is to excel at the highest level.
Puni's main problem
Asked about Puni, Foerster said: "You didn’t see a lot on tape that was what we do. But you saw in his testing, and you saw glimpses of it on tape. He is one of those guys that, we’ve talked about a lot of times, where you look at him and you’d say, ‘Gosh, is that guy for you?’
"We drafted [OL Aaron] Banks and it was the same way. You would go, ‘Gosh, this is a big old guard from Notre Dame. Is he really going to fit?’ But then you watch him run some screens and you see some things and go, ‘Oh yeah, if we start doing it every day.’
"So, this is a big guy that has some size. He also has some quickness, some power. He’s not the prototypical little quick guy, he is a guy that’s got the size range and length. One of those guys that will be holed up on third down, he was a very good pass blocker in college, that should translate to our game. And then, getting him to do our run game is going to be his biggest adjustment. So just all the traits that we need in our system. It didn’t jump off the tape, but it was there.”
In other words, when watching Puni, Foerster can see flashes of what the 49ers want from their players on an offensive line that, despite San Francisco's increasing usage of gap scheme runs, is still, from a ground game perspective, primarily tasked with using its collective athleticism to execute zone blocks.
However, those flashes are not nearly consistent enough for him to challenge for the starting right guard job as a rookie. That is the only spot on the O-Line where there is a potential competition in training camp. Veteran Jon Feliciano will be the favorite to retain that role, with Spencer Burford also in the mix as he looks to bounce back from his costly protection error in the Super Bowl.
An issue of consistency
Puni's testing numbers would certainly suggest he has the requisite physical gifts to excel in a zone-based scheme. He posted a Relative Athletic Score of 8.16 out of 10, excelling in the sections of the Combine workout that measure explosiveness and in the agility drills. His performance in the short shuttle, which has gained increasing prevalence as an indicator of future success at the position, was particularly impressive.
But the issues he displayed in college as a run blocker make it difficult to envision him as a year-one starter at right guard.
Puni does move very well for a man of his 313-pound frame and can smoothly access the second level, yet he does have problems with contacting and staying engaged with his defender when blocking in the open field.
In addition to that, Puni is frequently guilty of playing too high as a run blocker, with this issue enabling defenders who have a distinct size disadvantage to win the leverage battle and detach from his blocks with concerning speed.
The mean streak Puni has to his game, combined with good size and length for the position and his physical gifts, help him deliver some highlight reel blocks in the run game and create substantial rushing lanes.
Yet those empathic highs are often followed by lows where a defender sheds his block before a play has even had a chance to develop.
Inconsistency, albeit more connected to pass protection, was a key reason why Burford lost the right guard job to Feliciano during the second half of last season, and a team that has designs on finally getting over the Super Bowl hump can't afford the peaks and valleys that Puni would likely bring as a rookie.
As such, Puni will likely have to make substantial strides as a run blocker to have a hope of lining up as the starting right guard Week 1.
He has the athleticism to produce such strides and showed great promise as a puller in his time at Kansas, indicating he would have little problems producing the desired standard on gap scheme runs.
But the most probable outcome is that, as was the case when they took Banks in 2021 — a move that has helped facilitate the implementation of gap scheme runs — the 49ers will essentially give Puni a redshirt year before challenging him to make a starting job his own in year two.
Puni's challenge in training camp and preseason will be to convince the 49ers that putting their faith in him as a rookie is a better course of action. It's a very daunting one given the experienced alternatives the Niners have in Feliciano and Burford but, with Foerster's comments, he at least knows where to focus his efforts as he looks to make that happen.
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He doesn’t expect it to continue.
