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On Sunday, San Francisco 49ers star linebacker
Fred Warner will sit back and enjoy some football on television, just as many fans across the country do. He doesn't play in his Week 4 contest until the next night, and he rarely gets to take in so much of the gridiron action on the weekend. Instead, he's usually preparing for his own game.
Unlike most fans, though, Warner will be taking a more analytical approach to his football watching, trying to find something from his NFL peers that he might be able to apply to his own play and use against the Los Angeles Rams.
Even when Warner doesn't get to watch the games around the league, he often witnesses some amazing play. Several of his teammates are playmakers, after all. On Wednesday, Warner joined 95.7 The Game and was asked who some of those teammates might be—the ones to amaze him consistently.
One might think Warner went straight to phenom pass rusher
Nick Bosa. Or maybe even nine-time Pro Bowl tackle
Trent Williams on the other side of the ball. He did name one defensive player and one offensive player, but they weren't Bosa or Williams.
The first was second-year safety
Talanoa Hufanga.
"I think Hufanga has been pretty amazing through three games, some of the stuff that he's been doing, just coming off the edge," Warner told Damon Bruce and Ray Ratto.
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And it's not just Hufanga's ability to make plays off the edge that has impressed the All-Pro linebacker. The young safety can consistently take opponents by surprise.
"No, it's happening every game," Warner continued. "You would think that people would know how to stop it by now, but you can't stop it when a guy's just relentless and playing fast and physical. It's hard to stop a guy like that."
Hufanga's 11 tackles for a stop lead all NFL defensive backs, per Pro Football Focus. His 80.9 defensive grade from the analytics site ranks third on the 49ers.
On the offensive side of the ball, the impact of the 49ers' do-everything wide receiver,
Deebo Samuel, has been mitigated by opposing defenses through three games this season. Still, the self-proclaimed "wide back" is the second player named by Warner.
"I'd say every game somebody does something amazing," Warner said. "[Wide receiver] Deebo Samuel is constantly doing something amazing. He's running through somebody or making some kind of cut or something. I don't know. It's pretty cool to watch."
Samuel has 12 receptions for 131 receiving yards, and 17 carries for 111 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown through three games this season.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Warner below.
The San Francisco 49ers announced the signing of wide receiver Trent Taylor to a one-year deal, reuniting with the team's former fifth-round draft pick out of Louisiana Tech.
Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area was the first to report that the 49ers were discussing a potential reunion with Taylor. The receiver was part of head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch's first draft class in 2017 and spent his first four NFL seasons with the team.
The #49ers are talking with free-agent slot receiver/return man
The San Francisco 49ers are hosting several draft prospects this week as the deadline for pre-draft visits draws near. According to Aaron Wilson of KPRC2, the team will host former Western Kentucky wide receiver Malachi Corley on Wednesday.
Corley is expected to be a Day 2 pick. San Francisco owns two selections on Day 2—the No. 63 overall pick in the second round and the No. 94 overall pick in the third round. Currently, the receiver is visiting with the Seattle Seahawks.
Western Kentucky @WKUFootball receiver Malachi Worley
Ian Rapoport didn't offer much of an update on the ongoing contract negotiations between the San Francisco 49ers and their standout wide receiver, Brandon Aiyuk. However, the NFL insider emphasized one thing: The team is not entertaining trade discussions at this juncture.
Reacting to Aiyuk's decision to unfollow the 49ers on Instagram, Rapoport couldn't help but chuckle at the latest development. This practice has become commonplace among players who are unhappy with their contract situations. Wide receiver Deebo Samuel similarly took this action in 2022 before requesting to be traded just before the draft.
Things have yet to escalate that far with Aiyuk, but Rapoport sees his
Analyst Dane Brugler recently revealed his seven-round mock draft for The Athletic, forecasting all 257 selections in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft, set to kick off next week.
"Piecing together a mock like this is time consuming, but I enjoy the exercise, because it allows me to focus on each team's needs, organizational trends and prospect-team pairings that make sense based on '30' visits, league buzz and overall interest," Brugler wrote.
Most expect the 49ers to address the trenches early in the draft, and Brugler has the team doing that. It's just not on the offensive side of the football. In fact, Brugler doesn't have San Francisco
