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49ers OL Dominick Puni had an MRI on Monday for a Shoulder Injury

The 49ers keep losing key players to injuries.

Grant Cohn

Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers guard Dominick Puni (77) blocks New York Jets defensive end Solomon Thomas (left) during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers guard Dominick Puni (77) blocks New York Jets defensive end Solomon Thomas (left) during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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The 49ers keep losing key players to injuries.

The latest one who could miss time is rookie right guard Dominick Puni. He didn't miss any snaps in the 49ers' 38-10 loss to the Packers, but apparently he suffered a shoulder injury that required an MRI on Monday according to head coach Kyle Shanahan. He did not have the results of Puni's MRI when he spoke to the media. We'll get more information during Shanahan's press conference on Wednesday.

Until Sunday, Puni had been one of the 49ers' most consistent offensive linemen this season. But against the Packers, he committed three penalties and struggled to block in the run game. He was a bit of a liability. To be fair, Trent Williams didn't play, and his absence affected the entire offensive line.

Puni has been an excellent third-round draft pick. He's one of the best offensive linemen the 49ers have drafted since Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch took over the team in 2017. Puni was having a borderline Pro Bowl season before his poor performance in Green Bay.

If Puni can't play this Sunday in Buffalo, his replacement will be Spencer Burford, who started at right guard for the 49ers last season. So they've won lots of games with Burford on the field. Still, the 49ers have lost two games in a row and haven't beaten a team as good as the Bills all season. They're probably going to know no matter who starts at right guard. They're outclassed.

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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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