The 49ers officially have a frontrunner in their battle for the starting strong safety job. Although through a couple days of training camp it hasn’t been much of a competition. Second-year safety Talanoa Hufanga has been getting the first-team strong safety reps and acquitting himself well in that role.
Hufanga figured to be in a battle with veteran defensive back Tarvarius Moore, a converted free safety who missed all of last year with an Achilles tear he sustained in OTAs. Perhaps the team is just easing him back in from the Achilles tear, but defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans made it sound as though Hufanga is putting a stranglehold on the job.
“Yeah, Huf is doing a great job,” Ryans told reporters Thursday in a press conference. “He’s being more vocal, which is what I asked of him. Be more vocal, be more in that leadership role. At the safety position, we ask a lot of those guys. We ask them to communicate a lot, so Huf, he’s picking that up and he’s doing a much better job of it. And he’s always been a playmaker and an exciting guy to watch, so he’s doing that and communicating. So he’s headed in the right direction for us.”
