Dominick Puni’s 2025 season started with a clear problem: he wasn’t moving like himself.
A PCL injury in August slowed the San Francisco 49ers guard through the opening stretch of the regular season, and the tape showed it. According to Sports Info Solutions, Puni piled up 21 blown blocks over his first seven games.
He had three in each of the first two contests, then added four in each game from Weeks 4 through 6. He was stuck in place, and the results followed.
The second half told a different story. From Week 8 onward, Puni had only one game with more than three blown blocks, and that came against a defensive tackle Robert Saleh just gave a $100 million extension to.
There were also three clean sheets mixed into the back half of the season. That’s the version of Puni the 49ers are banking on for 2026.
Puni is 26 years old, has two accrued seasons, and stands 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds. He is entering the third year of his four-year deal, and his 2026 cap number is $1.55 million. If he puts together a season closer to what he did as a rookie and in the second half of 2025, extension talks start to make a lot more sense.
That’s not exactly familiar territory for San Francisco when it comes to guards. The team has extended Trent Williams and Colton McKivitz, but the last guard extension came back in June 2018, when Laken Tomlinson got his deal. Even Aaron Banks, a second-round pick, did not get extended.
So what does a Puni extension actually look like?
The right guard market is split into clear tiers. Four players are on deals worth more than $87 million.
Another three sit in the $62 million to $74 million range. Below that, there are seven guards with contracts between $30 million and $48 million.
Joe Tippmann of the New York Jets may be the best guide for Puni’s next deal. Tippmann, a second-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, recently signed a four-year, $62 million extension with $31 million in new guarantees.
Sports Info Solutions tracks total points earned, and Tippmann has posted 20, 31 and 30 across three seasons. Puni has been stronger early, with 30 and 34 points earned in his first two seasons.
Tyler Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is another name worth keeping in mind. Puni’s numbers are closer to Smith’s, and Smith once briefly held the NFL record for the highest annual average among guards.
A first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Smith has produced 30, 32, 31 and 37 points earned over four seasons. His first-round status, along with his availability and production, gives him an edge.
In Other News...
The 5 Most Underappreciated 49ers Of The Shanahan Era
Kyle Shanahans run in San Francisco has produced plenty of familiar stars, but the conversation around the 49ers often leaves out the players who made the whole thing work a little smoother. Emmanuel Sanders helped steady a young receiving group, Matt Breida gave the backfield burst and intrigue, Arik Armstead spent years taking on the kind of interior work that rarely shows up in highlight packages, and Dre Greenlaw became one of the defenses defining presence in the middle of the field.
Kyle Juszczyk sits in that same conversation for a different reason. His role has never been easy to pin down with basic numbers, which is part of why he can be overlooked even after nine seasons of being so useful in so many ways, and the case for him only gets stronger when the 49ers are being measured against the NFLs best teams. The broader point in ranking the most underappreciated players of the Shanahan era is that San Franciscos success has been built not just on headliners, but on a handful of trusted pieces whose value becomes obvious only when they are missing. [Read more 🡒]
John Lynch Could Be Weighing A Surprising 49ers Trade Before Week 1
With Week 1 approaching, the 49ers are still in the kind of roster-shaping period when one phone call can change the equation. John Lynch has shown in the past that he will listen if a move helps the bigger picture, and this group has a few spots where San Francisco has enough depth to at least consider whether a veteran or a younger player might bring back value before the season gets rolling.
The clearest intrigue sits in the secondary and behind center, where the 49ers have bodies and competition that could make a deal more realistic than it first appears. Nothing feels imminent, and no one around the team is treating a move as the most likely outcome, but if another club comes calling with the right offer, Lynch may have a decision to make before the opener. [Read more 🡒]
John Lynch May Still Have One More 49ers Upgrade In Mind
With the offseason still offering a chance to nudge the roster in the right direction, John Lynch is again being linked to the kind of trade market the 49ers have not been shy about exploring. The speculation is straightforward enough: San Francisco has needs to weigh, and the front office has long shown a willingness to scan around the league for help if the price and fit make sense.
Among the names floated are a possible addition at safety and another option at running back, along with a more ambitious pass-rush swing that would be harder to pull off. For a team that has spent years trying to keep its window open, the interesting part is not whether Lynch will look, but how far he is willing to go to land one more upgrade before next season gets here. [Read more 🡒]