49ers news: Recapping the rookies’ performance against the Vikings

The San Francisco 49ers are slowly easing in their first-year players. Well, some of them, at least. I’m not sure if they expected Dominick Puni to play right away, but injuries forced their hand, and it has proven to be a blessing in disguise.

We’ll review Renardo Green, Puni, Jacob Cowing, Isaac Guerendo, and Malik Mustapha. We’re probably a few weeks away from Ricky Pearsall’s season debut.

Renardo Green

In Green’s first snap in the NFL, he was tasked with defending Justin Jefferson on 3rd & 10. There’s an asterisk next to that statement, as defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen bracketed Jefferson with safety Ji’Ayir Brown. Green did his job and held his outside leverage while staying in phase.

That was the first “dime” package the defense played all season. Dime is when you take a linebacker off the field and have six defensive backs on the field.

Green’s next snap didn’t come until 8:59 remaining in the game. It was the second snap of dime. It was 3rd & 9. This time, Green was isolated in coverage against a tight end. Green covered the tight end, but unfortunately, Isaac Yiadom went over the top of a rub route and gave up a first down.

Green’s plus/minus stat wouldn’t look great if this were the NBA. His final snap came on 3rd & 8 on the same drive. He was in the exact alignment, manned up against a tight end, but Yiadom again gave up a reception, this time, a 26-yarder to a tight end.

Perhaps moving forward, Sorensen will let Green cover in the slot and leave Yiadom outside, where he seems more comfortable. But there were no complaints about Green’s game in a minimal sample size.

Dominick Puni

To say Puni “struggled” would be an overreaction. Per Sports Info Solutions, Puni had two blown blocks on 67 snaps. He has zero in Week 1. Defenses will likely run different stunts and games at the 49ers interior all season. It’s an area where Jake Brendel has struggled mightily, which means Puni will have to help pick up some of his teammate’s slack.

That was also an issue for Puni during training camp, and he had a couple of plays in this game where he stayed on his initial defender too long before coming off too late to the looping lineman. That’s his greatest area of improvement to date.

Puni moves well laterally and is adept at climbing to the second level without the defensive lineman holding him up. He’s been a significant upgrade in the running game for the Niners through two games.

When Puni is 1-on-1 in pass protection, his physical gifts shine. There’s only one rush where I remember him getting pushed back a bit, but you’re doing quite well when we’re talking about one play that went wrong.

Malik Mustapha

Mustapha didn’t start, but he played more snaps than George Odum. Malik has the necessary a**hole in him that you need on defense. On his second snap, as the play was coming to an end, he threw a shoulder at the offensive lineman and knocked him over.

He took himself out of the play on a 25-yard run. You’d like to see more awareness from the rookie and an understanding of where the run is headed.

Mustapha would have put the intended target into a concussed state if Fred Warner hadn’t intercepted Sam Darnold’s pass. He baited Darnold and rotated over at the perfect time.

On 3rd & 13, with 32 seconds to play, we saw what was my biggest critique of Mustapha when he was at Wake Forest. He was slow to move off his spot in coverage when he was playing over the middle of the field and related to his threats. In this case, Mustapha’s lone threat was Jefferson. Pre-snap, the alarm bells should be sounding off in his head, knowing that’s likely where the ball was going.

If Malik had been there on time, he would have tackled Jefferson short of the first down, and the 49ers would have gotten off the field instead of allowing points.

Mustapha flashed the traits you want to see, and I’d argue that he assimilated himself into the 49ers culture more so than Campbell and Yiadom. He’ll play faster with more reps.

Mustapha needs to play.

Isaac Guerendo

Guerendo had one carry that went for zero yards. He prematurely cut it back — likely after watching Jordan Mason do the same all game. It was an off-tackle, C-gap run. If Guerendo stays on his path to the outside, he probably picks up the first down and might’ve been off to the races.

Jacob Cowing

Had the Niners not recovered Cowing’s muffed punt, it might’ve been the last time we see the rookie was a returner. It’s a challenging situation because he’s back there for a reason. The coaching staff wouldn’t put a rookie as a returner if he weren’t consistently fielding punts in practice. Cowing has enough speed to make something happen, too. But you have one job, and that’s to catch the ball.

Somebody has to play receiver, with Deebo Samuel set to miss a couple of weeks with a calf strain. Cowing seems like the closest thing on the roster to Deebo. That role previously went to Ronnie Bell, but Cowing is far more explosive, although Bell has that bulldog mentality and can break tackles.

After last week, I’d get the ball to Cowing to help his confidence.