One position on the San Francisco 49ers that could use an emerging key player is at safety.
Ji'Ayir Brown is the only promising one with Talanoa Hufanga recovering from a torn ACL. That means rookie Malik Mustapha has a prime opportunity in front of him, and he is so far making the most of it. On the first day of training camp, Mustapha reportedly had a sweet interception.
Mustapha was already an intriguing player during OTAs and minicamp, so for him to come out firing immediately in camp will do wonders for him. He is already turning heads and that includes 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen.
“You could tell he has been studying, been working on it. It's not really like hesitant at all in the communications and being comfortable just in what he is doing back there, how he's communicating," said Sorensen. "You didn't see him do as many things in the post. He had a nice pick out of the post yesterday. He's just got good natural football instincts. But what we knew about him is that he cared. He did a lot of things and I think the next thing that's going to show up for him, he is a good tackler.
"He's really physical. That's the stuff you haven't seen so far because the stuff in the offseason it was seeing he's a big dude like he's swole. He's like strong, but he's got that mobility. He's got some flexibility and he moves really well too. So to see that he’s got the movement skill to go along, you could see that he cares. He is putting the time into it just because how he's communicating out there and moving around."
Mustapha is starting out 49ers training camp with the hot hand. Now it is all about him sustaining that. It will go a long way for him if he can because suddenly he will find himself in a role on defense and not just special teams. The safety position is screaming for an emerging key player. Can Mustapha be that?
