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Dominick Puni is the 49ers' Most Impressive Rookie

He's their starting right guard and he's in line to play 100 percent of their offensive snaps this season. That's how impressive he has been in training camp.

Grant Cohn

Mar 2, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kansas offensive lineman Dominick Puni (OL59) talks to the media during the 2024 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 2, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kansas offensive lineman Dominick Puni (OL59) talks to the media during the 2024 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports / Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
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SANTA CLARA -- Through two preseason games and 18 training camp practices, third-round pick Dominick Puni clearly is the most advanced rookie on the 49ers.

He's their starting right guard and he's in line to play 100 percent of their offensive snaps this season. That's how impressive he has been in training camp.

So on Tuesday, the 49ers made him available to the media for the first time since the draft. Here's what he said about his transition to the NFL.

Q: How are you picking up the offense?

PUNI: "I feel like I'm doing pretty good. Every day is like another step toward learning something new. Especially in this offense, which is a difficult offense to jump in and learn for your first time. Just taking it day by day, learning the playbook. There still are little details within every play that I need to get better at."

ME: Did you play right guard before this year?

PUNI: "No, I haven't played right guard."

ME: How long did it take you to feel comfortable there?

PUNI: "Probably like a week."

ME: What's the most challenging aspect of playing guard as opposed to tackle?

PUNI: "Just working with less space. I think tackle is harder in pass protection. When you're one on one, you have all that space out there. I think run blocking is probably a harder job on the guard, just because you're facing heavier dudes and you have less space to create room and run off the ball. So I would say run blocking is probably a little bit harder."

Q: Did you have to do anything to transition your body from playing tackle to playing guard?

PUNI: "No, not really. I played guard in 2022 at Kansas kind of with the same build as I played tackle with in 2023. So I figured I'd be fine if I keep getting stronger and get a good anchor."

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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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