Much of the focus on San Francisco’s offensive line this offseason has been on who will start the season at right guard. With Spencer Burford and Jon Feliciano the two likeliest candidates to win the job, Matt Barrows of The Athletic dove into the plan for rookie third-round guard Dominick Puni going forward.
Though Puni did spend a season at Kansas playing left guard, the rest of his six-year tenure in college was spent at tackle. After starting three games in seven appearances at right tackle as a true freshman at Central Missouri, Puni became a full-time starter at left tackle as a sophomore. His third year was canceled due to COVID-19, and his junior year was cut short as he missed all but two games with a knee injury. He then transferred to Lawrence, where he spent his redshirt junior year at left guard and his final season at left tackle.
While his frame and experience allow him the opportunity and ability to play tackle at the NFL level, if needed, he was largely viewed throughout the draft process as a professional guard or center, a type of versatility that the 49ers have shown they value in players like Feliciano. Back in our last look at the team’s right guard competition, Puni’s name was thrown out as an unlikely contender for the job if he were able to display a stronger starting ability and consistency than Burford and Feliciano, a tough task for rookie offensive linemen in the NFL.
In Barrows’ recent dive, he noted that offensive line coach Chris Foerster confirmed that Puni would compete for the job at right guard, though he undercut that a bit by comparing Puni to starting left guard Aaron Banks. Banks, drafted in the second round in 2021, competed and worked at right guard as a rookie but didn’t end up making an impact on the offense until his sophomore campaign in the NFL as the starter at left guard.
While drawing this parallel seems to imply that Puni will have a minimal, reserve role in 2024, it bodes well for the 24-year-old’s future. With Banks scheduled to hit free agency at the end of his 2024 campaign and the 49ers showing an unwillingness to pay big money for interior linemen in recent years, Puni could perfectly mirror Banks’ career path by becoming the starting left guard after a rookie season of backup right guard play, replacing a departed Banks.
