San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings wasn't the only player to return to practice on Monday. Right guard Dominick Puni rejoined his teammates after missing time with a PCL sprain suffered in the team's second preseason game. Fortunately for San Francisco, the injury wasn't as serious as it initially appeared, and the second-year offensive lineman looks on track to start in Sunday's regular-season opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
Puni spoke with reporters after practice and provided an update on his recovery.
"Getting to full strength," Puni said. "The PCL heals pretty fast, so it's feeling a lot better."
As for being back on the field, the 25-year-old admitted there was some adjustment.
"Definitely a little rusty, but it just takes a day," he noted. "So, I'm excited for Wednesday and Thursday."
The lineman recalled feeling relieved when he learned the injury affected his PCL and not his ACL. Puni went down while blocking during a field goal attempt following the starters' only offensive drive against the Las Vegas Raiders.
"That was the good news," Puni said of learning his ACL was fine. "That's when I smiled in there (in the medical tent). I was like, 'All right, let's go.' But they said PCL could be anywhere from three to eight weeks, depending on how you recover. I'm on the better side right now, so it's good."
The 49ers struggled to a 6-11 record last season, but expectations remain high in 2025. With a revamped roster, Puni believes the team is ready to prove itself in one of the NFL's most challenging environments.
"We're just really excited and real pumped to get going," Puni said. "We've been waiting a long time. Obviously, we had a rough taste after last year, and ever since then, obviously, we revamped the roster a little bit—a lot of it, actually. So, we've just got a lot of hungry dawgs and just ready to go eat."
San Francisco knows how difficult it is to win at Lumen Field, and the team struggled against the NFC West last season. The 49ers won just one divisional game, making a strong start this season even more important.
"It's huge," Puni emphasized. "Obviously, the first goal is to win the division, and [Seattle is] probably one of the craziest or toughest places to play. It'll be a great test for us as a team. Just the first week, but we're really excited."