49ers Draft Safety Talanoa Hufanga with Pick No. 180

The 49ers just hedged their bets at strong safety.

The 49ers just hedged their bets at strong safety.

This offseason, they re-signed injury-prone safety Jaquiski Tartt to a one-year deal. And now, in Round 5 with pick No. 180, the 49ers have drafted injury-prone safety Talanoa Hufanga from USC. Between the two of them, the 49ers probably figure they'll get 17 healthy starts.

Hufanga is an excellent strong safety when healthy. In just six games last season, he recorded 62 tackles, 3 sacks, 4 interceptions and two forced fumbles. He's the playmaker Tartt has never been for the 49ers. That's the theory, at least.

But Hufanga and Tartt have things in common. Both of them throw their bodies around and suffer injuries because of their play style. Hufanga has broken his collarbone twice and dislocated his shoulder twice, while Tartt has had similar injuries. In both cases, the breaks came from poor tackling technique. Perhaps the 49ers can clean up Hufanga's technique, although they never could with Tartt.

Even if Hufanga continues to get injured and miss games, he's a fine pick at the end of Round 5. This is the spot to take chances on players with medical issues. And if he stays healthy, he has the potential to replace Tartt as the starting strong safety in 2022 and be an impact playmaker as well. Good risk to take late in the draft.

Now the 49ers have four safeties with talent -- Hufanga, Tartt, Jimmie Ward and Tarvarius Moore. Between the four of them, the 49ers should have enough depth to make it through the season.


Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.