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49ers Safety Talanoa Hufanga Projected to Sign for 2-Years, $25 Million

Look for the 49ers to draft a safety to compete with Ji'Ayir Brown to be Hufanga's replacement.
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

Talanoa Hufanga most likely has priced himself out of Santa Clara.

The 49ers starting strong safety the past three seasons will be a free agent in a few days, and Sports Illustrated's Matt Verderame and Gilberto Manzano project him to receive a two-year, $25 million contract offer, which is likely more than the 49ers would be willing to pay him.

"Hufanga established himself as one of the best safeties in the league during his breakout 2022 season, but he’s dealt with injuries the past two seasons," writes SI.

"He might be the odd man out in San Francisco’s secondary after the team paid cornerback Deommodore Lenoir and used a ’23 third-round pick on safety Ji’Ayir Brown. The team could also pay cornerback Charvarius Ward instead of the hard-hitting Hufanga."

I think it's highly unlikely the 49ers will pay Hufanga or Ward. Expect both of them to leave when free agency starts.

The 49ers simply don't have much cash to spend this offseason after dolling more than $334 million on players in 2024 and recently purchasing a controlling stake in a Scottish soccer team called Rangers FC.

That's why the 49ers just traded Deebo Samuel and could trade Brandon Aiyuk as well in the next few weeks. They're trying to save cash, and not so they can re-sign Hufanga.

If anything, they're trying to save cash so they can extend Brock Purdy's contract. But even that's no guarantee according to John Lynch.

Look for the 49ers to draft a safety to compete with Ji'Ayir Brown to be Hufanga's replacement.

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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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