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49ers Offensive Lineman Jon Feliciano Says He's Ready to Return

Reinforcements are on the way.

Grant Cohn

Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers guard Jon Feliciano (55) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers guard Jon Feliciano (55) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Reinforcements are on the way.

Veteran offensive lineman Jon Feliciano posted on X today that he's ready to return to action. Feliciano has been on Injured Reserve with a knee injury all season after signing a one-year extension with the 49ers this offseason.

Feliciano, 32, originally signed with the 49ers as a backup in 2023. But midway through last season he took Spencer Burford's job as the starting right guard and kept the job through the Super Bowl. But Feliciano left that game early with an injury and hasn't been fully healthy until now.

But the 49ers don't need him to start at right guard anymore -- now they have rookie Dominick Puni who will be their starting right guard for the next decade barring injury. He's already the second-best offensive lineman on the team after Trent Williams. There's no way the 49ers would bench Puni for Feliciano.

So Feliciano's only opportunity to play would be at center in place of Jake Brendel. Brendel isn't a particularly good center, but offensive line coach Christ Foerster loves him and seems to believe he's better than Feliciano. So barring an injury to Brendel, I'm guessing Feliciano will be a backup when he returns.

If Puni, Brendel or left guard Aaron Banks were to go down with an injury, Feliciano might be the next man up at each position. And he would be a good replacement in a pinch. But he's too old to play full time for more than a month or two without getting injured.

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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.

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