The San Francisco 49ers had multiple opportunities to win the Super Bowl this past season. While they had many of their superstar players healthy during their playoff run and Super Bowl matchup, they were missing one of their absolute key defenders.
San Francisco has one of the best defenses in the league consisting of superstar talent in all three levels of the defense. On their defensive line, Nick Bosa rounds out a very elite unit, and their linebacker unit behind them is also one of, if not the best in football. However, the team was missing their key All-Pro Safety in Talanoa Hufanga.
San Francisco 49ers Acivate Star Safety Back Into the Starting Lineup
While the 49ers made many significant moves on ‘cut day,’ like every other team around the league, there are none more crucial to their team this season than bringing back one of the best defenders in the game at the safety position.
Troy Polamalu 2.0 AKA Talanoa Hufanga will make his return this year after suffering an injury last season that kept him out for the most crucial game of the season. He is so good, that it would not be such a hot take to say, that if the team had him during the playoffs they may have ended up on top.
The #49ers:
— Activated S Talanoa Hufanga from PUP, but will ease him back.
— Placed DL Kalia Davis on IR/to return, while placing RB Elijah Mitchell on IR without a return designation. His season is over. https://t.co/dk88YZM7Er— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 27, 2024
Hufanga was an All-Pro in the 2022 season and was looking to follow that up with an amazing season last year. If not for injuries he would probably be a back-to-back All-Pro at the safety position and he is a huge addition to a defense that is already one of the best in the game.
The 49ers have gotten so close to glory that they can almost taste it. They will need all of their stars healthy at the end of the year if they want to finally overcome that hurdle and make it to the promised land of champions.
As stated above, the team’s defense has absolute stars in all three levels, but they also have captains for each of those levels and players that lead those groups. Hufanaga is the leader in the back end of their defense, and in the postseason, you are going to play a lot of elite quarterbacks.
Hufanaga has famously been trained by Polamalu himself and they are both USC natives with an eerily similar playing style. Having him back will go a long way to the 49ers success.
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