The 49ers suffered a significant loss to their defense with safety Talanoa Hufanga going down with a torn ACL.
In an interview with KNBR’s Murph and Mac show on Tuesday morning, General Manager John Lynch explained what Hufanga’s loss means to San Francisco’s defense.
“First of all, with Huf, I mean, those types of guys are hard to replace,” Lynch said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I think he just plays with an energy, with a passion. He’s an instinctive player. He’s a playmaker. He gives a lot to our defense, and he’s made so many plays. He fires up our stadium. He fires up our players.”
The 49ers had rookie Ji’Ayir Brown step in for Hufanga and he came up with an interception off of Baker Mayfield. San Francisco traded up to draft Brown in the third round of this year’s draft.
“He’s a really good football player, and he’s got — much like Huf — he’s got an ability to make plays, and that was tested right away,” Lynch said, adding Brown has “tremendous” ball skills. “So he’s been biding his time, been getting better each week. The coaches have done a great job, [he’s] been a big-time special teams contributor, and really proud of the way he’s worked and stepped up when he was asked to.”
Brown will get his first opportunity to start on Thursday night when the 49ers play the Seahawks to cap the Thanksgiving slate.
