A topic that has surfaced ahead of the San Francisco 49ers’ Week 4 game against the Denver Broncos is the return of Talanoa Hufanga to Levi’s Stadium.
Hufanga’s story is an inspiring one; after he was selected as a fifth-round pick out of USC in the 2021 NFL Draft, to blossoming into one of the more promising safeties in the NFL.
Seven-time Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle spoke with reporters following Thursday’s practice and said the one thing he remembers about Hufanga was how he was constantly studying in his iPad.
“He’s watching every single game. He’s watching tendencies. He’s watching guys break down on their routes.” Kittle said. “How do you not let him do that? Well, hopefully he gets us wrong a couple times.”
Kittle went on to talk about Hufanga’s play style as he will occasionally guess right at times, but will also guess wrong.
“Those instinctual players, right? He’s gonna make plays, and we gotta make sure he doesn’t make all the plays,” Kittle said. “We have a lot of really good players, so it is what it is. …If we can take advantage of some of that stuff, it should be pretty fun.”
In his Broncos debut last year, Hufanga showed why he was worth the $39 million the Broncos shelled out to him for the next three years by logging over 100 tackles.
This season has been no better.
In last week’s 30-26 thriller of a victory against the Los Angeles Rams, Hufanga went back to his 49ers roots and tormented quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Hufanga had two interceptions against Stafford, including one that he returned for a touchdown during the fourth quarter, to help to put the Broncos ahead 23-19.
But with a new week on the horizon, comes a new challenge. And this week will be covering Kittle.
While speaking with reporters on Thursday, he said Kittle was “Truly one of my favorite teammates I’ve ever played with.”
He went on to praise Kittle for the early success he’s had this year, especially after he started the season, eight months removed from rupturing his Achilles during the wild card round of the playoffs last year.
“He’s a guy that has fun in the offseason and does what he does, but at the end of the day he’s gonna get his work in,” Hufanga said. “For a guy to come back after eight months, I was shocked. To see him over here scoring two touchdowns is pretty real.”
