How Dominick Puni Will Make 49ers QB Brock Purdy Better

Through one preseason game and 16 days of training camp, it's clear he holds his ground quite well in pass protection -- much better than Spencer Burford and Jon Feliciano, last season's right guards.

Grant Cohn | Aug 15, 2024

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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San Francisco 49ers

Brock Purdy benefits from so many aspects of the 49ers offense, but pass protection definitely isn't one of them.

Trent Williams is a Hall of Fame left tackle, but the rest of the offensive line isn't good. And that means Brock Purdy can't step up in the pocket because it collapses so often. Which means he has to spin and escape out the back of the pocket, which is a dangerous maneuver in the NFL.

Enter rookie right guard Dominick Puni. Through one preseason game and 16 days of training camp, it's clear he holds his ground quite well in pass protection -- much better than Spencer Burford and Jon Feliciano, last season's right guards.

So Purdy doesn't have to spin out the back of the pocket anymore. In fact, he rarely does that in practice these days. Instead, he simply steps up in the pocket and delivers his pass while starting right tackle Colton McKivitz pushes the edge rusher past the quarterback. Call it the Puni Effect.

Puni currently is the best offensive lineman on the field while Williams holds out for a new contract. The rookie is better than Jaylon Moore, Aaron Banks, Jake Brendel and McKivitz. It's too bad the 49ers didn't draft an offensive lineman in Round 1 as well, considering how much of a disappointment Ricky Pearsall has been so far. Imagine if the 49ers had drafted a center instead of him. They might actually have a good offensive line.

I'm sure Purdy would love one of those.

Published Aug 15, 2024

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.