How Soon Will Talanoa Hufanga Start for the 49ers

time for the 49ers Rush podcast you know there's a few players on the 49ers team that you know the 4ers when they draft they have like a demarcation like the gold helmet players right that are tone Setters and fit what they want and culture and on and off the field and work ethic and whatever play style all that stuff and that's awesome but before they ever even you know wear the red and gold but there are a few players that once they're on the team and you start to see their personalities unfold during the games right you know it's I do we do all the draft work we break down every single play on all 22 which has no sound none but certain players personalities just explode without the use of any audio whatever just straight through visualization and there's a few players that just ring true on this 49ers roster George KD Jawan Jennings Dre Greenlaw like like just these tough Fred Warner like these just tough guys that play physical old style football that just make the biggest plays at the biggest moments and I don't think any more true than number 15 on our list tal no hu funga this dude coming off an in the ACL tear I I was there at the game and I saw it it was an outside toss he got juked knee went out walked straight to the sideline it was over so like this year's weird and that's why we have him at number 15 last year taleno was 11 just outside the top 10 and 2022 his first year starting with 17 this year came in at 15 shout out to my man Josh executive producer of today's show but you know and we're recording this the 17th of August he just got the last medical clear check to go back to football activities so it's going to be a slow ramp up we'll see what it is but if if I had my guess I think tal noou fun is going to start 15 plus games this year you know bring them in slowly rotate them in a couple series maybe first second week George odms earned that right at safety he's had a great Camp number 30 I'm excited to see him out there but taleno you don't have to rush them back now because you have such great safety depth and the tandem of hunga and Jer Brown gosh and again a lot of this is banking on will hunga return to what he was pre-injury but man if Jer plays to the level he's been playing and huanga plays to the level we've seen that all proo level you've got a top three top two safety tandem in the NFL he wears jersey number 29 my favorite Jersey probably to wear uh I wear the hunga Jersey probably more to most games than any other one 6' 200 lb um that's exactly what the ners want at that defensive back position whether it's Corner safety nickel 6' 200 lb that's what he is and he's young too you know yeah he he's played some time for sure you know he's going into the last year of his rookie deal and we'll talk that contract but man he's only 25 years old that that's it like he's still a young pup he he's got a lot more time in the NFL hopefully it's with the ners not sure it will be um we'll deal with that later ran a 4 6440 not the fastest guy but shows up 6.93 cone 35 1 12 inch vertical 12 bench press reps he is instincts on instincts and passion on passion that's what he brings and obviously he always gets the Palo Malu references he trains with them the Polynesian aspect the hair out the back of the helmet I get it is he Troy palalo no he's not but is he pretty damn good he's really really good went to Crescent Valley High School in Corvalis Oregon which man how USC stole him away is interesting but then you start diving into the family aspect um you know his brother TJ played linebacker Oregon State but his cousins Marlin and Tuli uh both played at USC and and he said you know I kind of went to USC because it was quote it's basically the Polynesian high school end quote um he's tongen descent that's why you always see him do the tongen te you know after big plays with his arms um and good Lord four-year Varsity starter at safety played some quarterback and wide receiver in high school All State basketball he ran a 227 in the 200 meter so like his freak athleticism he do have top tier speed but like he he could play he could play now he can run it's there he was named the Polynesian High School National player of the year which is awesome and he's got ties to other Polynesian 49ers you guys remembera Tom P panin sorry if I pronounced his name incorrectly I'm out of practice his father grew up in the same Village raising cows pigs and chickens um you know all the way down in Tonga what Is Awesome The Village of Pia is what it was called and so like there's just it's awesome there's so many awesome parallels to what taloa brings to this team two-time All State High School pick um 2012 us All-American Bowl was the Pack 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2020 but had a lot of shoulder injuries that was an issue and that pushed him down playmaking was always there again Pack 12 d Defensive Player of the Year AP first team allamerican Walter Camp All-American first team and finalist for the lot impact trophy you can go on and on and on and the 49ers did give him their gold helmet um demarcation before the draft but he had like three shoulder injuries and that was a major concern especially for somebody that hits so hard hasn't been an issue um in the NFL really really hasn't came out this year uh was voted number 78 on the NFL top 100 list that's incredible um trains with Troy palalo and this year is going to be huge because the safety Market in the NFL is about as bad as any position besides running back it might even be worse than running back to be honest with you and so he's going into a contract year this is the last year the 49ers have him under contract so if he's going to get paid which I I don't even think that's like a really high up Priority for him I think he wants to win football games and put his you know best foot forward and just play as hard as he can for his team but alongside of that somebody's got to pay this guy will the 49ers bring him back well you go out you draft Malik Mustafa who's look great in the preseason thus far look great in training camp this is kind of the red shirt philosophy where okay who are the guys that are on expiring contracts you've got guards you've got Corners you've got a safety and a linebacker so what do they do they go draft all those positions right Dre green law well you go draft you know Tatum bethon D winners and Jaylen Graham you got who fun on a contract year you get Malik Mustafa you've got dador Lenor on you know contract year you go draft Renardo green you've got Aaron banks on a contract here you go get Dominic puny and the 49ers kind of this is the lake and Tomlin thing where you draft these guys not necessarily to replace them but to where you do not have to be held hostage by man if we don't sign this guy we're in trouble they basically get a year red shirt program for these guys and they try to see well I think we have a replacement that's a much cost effective option we'll just place that in there so we'll have to see how it goes how does Malik perform throughout the year how does hufa perform throughout the year but you know I was looking at safety contracts over the cap which does a really good job cap evaluations and all that stuff it T no hunga cost $1.0 million against the cap this year that's bananas he's only made 2.6 million in his three years and he's got an all pro year in there now the safety Market is so bad excuse me I'm sorry they have his valuation at $5.5 million per year my guess is he'll get that kind of $9 to1 million deal now if he goes out and has another all proo year that could change but let's go now to the new 49ers DC Nick senson talking about Pa no funga kind of what separates him uh main thing with him is he's he's got experience and he's a heck of a player I mean he's really really good at communicating he's smart he sees things has a full understanding of our system and when he gets back we're going to be excited I know he's excited he was out there on the field the other day at our you know we're in phase two right now so we're on the field doing a little bit of you know work with our players and just talking to him he's he excited so when he's ready he'll be ready and and we'll be excited to have him back now and I remember this happens every year whenever the 49ers draft somebody the meter of oh people were saying Malik's going to take hua's job this year and what like no guys absolutely not like Malik's not beating out George Odum you see what I'm saying like eventually he will this year no hunga is Head and Shoulders above any other safety the 49ers have including Jer Brown who's awesome um go through the numbers PFF you know I don't think really does him Justice 70.5 overall that's good 77.1 run defense that's great for a safety and a lot of the explosive runs that the 49ers defense started giving up those outside crack toss plays all that stuff as soon as hungo went down and we replaced him at safety that's when those plays started showing their ugly head 76 6.3 pass rush 66 coverage 66 special teams the dude just does everything we got him in the fifth round another fifth round stud um and in 2021 that fifth round draft the entire draft like first pick to last pick there's five all proo players in that draft Micah Parsons pan Su Patrick serain and Aman ra St Brown and then tal noou funga that's it we got one of the five and we drafted the last one almost all those guys are first round picks besides Manan and taloa also that same round we got Jaylen Moore who's still playing for us he's the Trent Williams backup and dador lanor all in the fifth round that's a damn good draft um now I do believe we got to be a little bit patient with huanga I curious to see how the Niners going to handle this I would like week three to probably be his first week but again we got to see things he hasn't even practiced fully yet but he just got cleared I hope he goes out there I hope he balls out I hope he puts a stamp on the NFL and I hope he gets paid I want to keep him I really really do I'm not sure the 49ers will be able to the only thing that kind of gives me how do I say this like it could happen is the 49ers are willing to play positions pay positions that aren't coveted by other teams we pay full excuse me fullback tight end running back now maybe safety and linebacker used to be that but we changed that so that's one of the thing because you could get a deal done with Huna for like 10 million it's not like wide receiver you know talking 30 million or a cornerback talking 20 plus million like you can keep H funga for 10 million a year I think that is a very realistic option we'll see what happens but t we love you man hope you come back show us what you got for us we'll just keep counting them down