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PFF Ranks 49ers Safety Talanoa Hufanga 23rd Among NFL Free Agents

The 49ers might lose an All Pro safety this offseason.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga (29) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga (29) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers might lose an All Pro safety this offseason.

Talanoa Hufanga will be an unrestricted free agent when the new league year starts on March 12 and the 49ers might not be able to re-sign him. That's because he's one of the better free agents available this year -- Pro Football Focus ranks him the 23rd-best free agent to be exact.

"A fifth-round draft pick in 2021, Hufanga earned PFF coverage grades above 65.0 in both 2022 and 2023," writes PFF. "He played just 308 snaps in 2024 due to injury and earned a career-low 57.8 PFF overall grade."

Notice that PFF didn't mention that Hufanga was an All Pro in 2022. That's because PFF never has been a fan of his play -- they think he's overrated based on his mediocre coverage grades.

But he's also a playmaker who intercepts passes, forces fumbles and recovers them. He plays on instinct and often is one step ahead of the opposing offense. Earlier in his career, he gave up long touchdowns when his instincts led him astray, but he doesn't do that much anymore.

The biggest knock against Hufanga is his injury history. He missed the second half of 2023 with a torn ACL and then he missed most of the first half of 2024 with a wrist injury. When he finally returned, he played the final few games with a cast covering his hand, which is why he dropped at least one potential interception.

Don't be surprised if Hufanga signs a multi-year deal somewhere else and flourishes. He's a potential bargain for a smart team. The 49ers should find a way to bring him back.

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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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