San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Dominick Puni is an early standout from the team's 2024 NFL Draft class, garnering high praise from one of the team's most established veterans in All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner.
"You know who can kind of move good? The rookie - No. 77, Puni," Warner said in a mic'd up segment from "Brick by Brick: Nothing's Ever Given." "He can move good, bro... I was trying to run past him, and he was hanging with me. I had to punch and get off of him. He has good size to him. He can move. Obviously, he's young, so he's only going to get stronger."
"That's a crazy compliment from a heck of a player," Puni said. "All my friends and family saw it too and were just sending it to me... That's just something I'm going to look back on whenever I'm done with football, and I'm just going to say 'Wow.' This guy is probably going to be a Hall of Famer, so the fact that he's saying that about me is really cool."
While many of the rookies will have time to learn from the more experienced starters ahead of them on the depth chart, the 49ers third-round pick has had to hit the ground running this training camp and preseason. He's logged a significant amount of practice reps and earned two preseason starts at right guard after a series of injuries to San Francisco's offensive line. Right guard Spencer Burford broke his hand, left guard Aaron Banks broke his pinky and underwent surgery and Jon Feliciano, a swing offensive lineman, also recently had surgery for a knee injury. Per head coach Kyle Shanahan, Feliciano may begin the year on the Injured Reserve list and miss the first half of the year.
"Every day is a step towards learning something new, especially in this offense," Puni said. "It's a difficult offense to just jump in and learn for your first time. I'm just taking it day by day, learning the playbook. There are still little details within every play that I need to get better at."
"He's kind of been consistent throughout, the way he started camp and has continued to work every week," offensive line/run game coordinator Chris Foerster said ahead of the 49ers second preseason game. "He's been a pretty consistent performer. Everything we saw him do in practice, he did in the game."
Puni's racked up a total of 65 offensive snaps in his two preseason starts, and per Pro Football Focus, he's given up one pressure and no sacks in those outings. While Puni's picking up the system quickly, he was quick to credit two more senior offensive lineman - Burford and Feliciano - with helping him get up to speed during training camp.
"They've been super helpful. Spencer, when I come off the sideline, I would ask him all the questions in the world," Puni said. "He would come up to me and tell me things I could work on. He's been super helpful in that way. Obviously, that's something that he doesn't even have to do.
"When we watch film, they always help me out because they know all the little details. They have all the experience that I don't have. Anything they tell me, I'm listening for sure."
He's also listening to the feedback of the 49ers defensive line, particularly the tackles. Puni noted that he's sought their advice as continues to refine his guard play.
"It's really like an iron sharpens iron thing," Puni said. "I'll ask them, if they beat me on a move, 'Did I flash my hand too soon? Did I lean? What did you see?' And they're more than willing to talk to me because we all have one ultimate goal at the end."
