Chris Foerster Breaks Down the 49ers' Right Guard Competition

"There's three good players all, with different things that they do well."

Jul 26, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers run game coordinator Chris Foerster talks to the press during Day 4 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports / D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers have a wide-open competition at right guard this offseason between Jon Feliciano, Spencer Burford and rookie Dominick Puni. Offensive line coach Chris Foerster spoke about this competition on Friday. Here's what he said, courtesy of the 49ers p.r. department.

Q: What was your initial plan if you look at the two guard situations? You mentioned Feliciano and Puni, that leaves OL Spencer Burford as your apparent first stringer. How do you look at that right now as far as what you want to see?

FOERSTER: “Yeah, you can tell it's great. It's hard. It's not like we're going to be able to just, I think say, ‘This job belongs to, Jon, or this job belongs to Spencer, or this job belongs to Puni or whoever.’ By the time this all shakes out, who knows may be the right or left guard at the position. I think Banks is set. That right guard spot, I'm not going to say it's like a wide open competition, but it's going to be interesting to see because there's three good players all, with different things that they do well, and different dynamics to the whole thing. Do you really want, even if Puni is the best player, is that the guy? Do you want him out there, opening day, Monday Night Football against the Jets? If he's the best player you do, but those are bright lights. Whereas opposed to Spence and Jon, who have done it. So there's that whole dynamic. And then it's just who's playing best, who's playing well. You have to look at Jon Feliciano as an aging player to say what's best for him, in regard to trying to make it to, hopefully there's a Week, 18, 19, 20. If there are those weeks at the end of the year, then how do you get him there and what does that look like this time of year and into the season? Same thing with Spence and Puni, it's all the same. So it's a kind of a fluid situation right now. And that's good to have. Unfortunately, there's not as much time to develop guys or have a competition, but I think it's good."

ME: What's unique about Puni? What does he bring?

FOERSTER: “He's a strong, big body. He just has a lot, he's no bigger than most of them, but he'll set the pocket real well. He plays with great anchor. He's extremely intelligent. He’s really a good player. He's a special guy and he's just not done the position for very long. And with our system, it's a little bit of a change for him. So there's going to be a learning curve, but he's got some real stuff to him. A lot of our guards in our system, they tend to be quicker. That's where Banks is a great advantage. He is. Those bigger guys inside do help.”