San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
49ers safety Hufanga ‘putting it together now’
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — He is becoming a star before our eyes, a second-year sensation who seemed to materialize out of thin air. San Francisco 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga has been one of the NFL’s most prolific playmakers during the first half of 2022, a conspicuous presence on a talent-rich defense that is the league’s stingiest. Simply put, he has been a revelation.
The 23-year-old is seemingly headed for the stratosphere — and not merely because the Niners practiced this week at a field that sits 6,700-plus feet above sea level, part of a plan to get Hufanga and his teammates acclimated to the altitude for Monday night’s game against the Arizona Cardinals in Mexico City. And yet, for all his sudden success, there’s little concern that the first-year starter’s head is in the clouds.
“I don’t think I’ve arrived yet,” Hufanga said Thursday
after the Niners’ practice at the Air Force Academy. “It’ll probably be 12 years down the line — God willing, if I can play that long — before I even say it. And, really, you can never have that mind-set that you have arrived.”
Hufanga’s humility runs deep, a product of the mentorship he has received from Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu, and from the way he was raised. He grew up on a farm outside Corvallis, Ore., doing many of the same chores that had been assigned to his father, Tevita, who spent his first 18 years in a Tongan village.
“Being raised with a pops that grew up on dirt floors, it really makes me appreciate the little things in life — hot water, electricity, having a roof over your head,” said Hufanga, who fiercely values his Polynesian heritage. “I was fortunate to go back (as a teenager) and see where he grew up; he would do chores and farm work all day. I definitely understand what it takes to have a work ethic like that, regardless of what you have.”
At times, he learned the hard way. As a freshman in high school, Hufanga was handed back a math exam that didn’t pass the smell test — and, shortly thereafter, neither did he.
“I didn’t pass a math test, and my dad picked me up from football practice, after I’d changed back into my school clothes,” Hufanga recalled. “When we got home he sent me straight into the barn to clean it out. I had to do it in my school shoes; he wouldn’t let me change.
“I had a shovel and a wheelbarrow, and it was pitch black, and I had to clean out the whole barn. Because if this was how I was gonna act with my grades, those were the consequences.”
Hufanga had to throw away his shoes, but the stench of misplaced priorities lingered.
“I never failed a math test after that,” he said, smiling.
As a high school senior, Hufanga passed another test: convincing Polamalu to guide him on his journey to potential football greatness. After committing to play at USC, Polamalu’s alma mater, Hufanga was connected with the former Pittsburgh Steelers great by another former NFL player, Vai Sikahema. Hufanga was on his way back from Hawaii, where he’d just played in the Polynesian Bowl, when he called the number Sikahema had given him.
Polamalu “answered right away,” Hufanga recalled. “I was starstruck. We talked about a bunch of different things that we needed to handle in order for me to be successful on the field and off the field. And later, when I followed through with them, I (called back) and told him I’d done everything he asked, and he decided to work with me.”
When Hufanga arrived at Polamalu’s house in San Diego for their first training session, he was greeted by another reality check.
“We started warming up, and three hours later we’re finishing up and I’m like, ‘Man, that was a good workout,’ ” Hufanga recalled. “And Troy was like, ‘That was just the warm-up. And then we went to work. That was a lesson for me.”
The learning curve continued for Hufanga when he got to USC. “My freshman year in college, I was a fifth-string safety before I ended up starting,” he said. “I really didn’t understand defenses, ’cause I came from a defense in high school where they just let me roam and just find the ball. So, that’s where my very instinctual feel of the game comes from. But I really didn’t understand defenses.”
He wasn’t handed anything in the NFL, either. Partly because of a relatively slow 40yard dash (4.64 seconds), and partly because of the slew of injuries during his first two seasons with the Trojans (two broken collarbones, a shoulder sprain and a concussion), Hufanga wasn’t drafted until the fifth round.
As a rookie, he didn’t make a ton of noise in the regular season during three fill-in starts. However, Hufanga announced his presence resoundingly in January in the Niners’ 13-10 divisional-round playoff upset of the Packers at Lambeau Field, scooping teammate Jordan Willis’ blocked punt out of the snowy darkness and racing into the end zone for a gameturning touchdown with 4:41 remaining.
Coach Kyle Shanahan has since told reporters, “We should have played (Hufanga) a lot more last year.” Hufanga, however, didn’t mind his apprenticeship, saying, “I definitely needed to be on the sideline and see it from a different perspective, ’cause I needed that time to grow and mature. There was a lot of growth from Year 1 to Year 2.”
After the season, the 49ers made no attempt to re-sign starting strong safety Jaquiski Tartt, whose dropped interception in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game defeat to the Rams shall live in infamy. Hufanga seized the starting job — and, once the games began, has gotten his hands on just about everything.
Simply put, he has been a revelation.
“You could see flashes of it” last year, Pro Bowl linebacker Fred Warner said. “But he’s putting it together now. Consistency is the truest measure of performance.”
Hufanga has four of the 49ers’ seven interceptions, including his 52-yard pick-six of a Matthew Stafford-to-Cooper Kupp screen in the Niners’ 24-9 victory over the Rams in early October, and his diving interception of a Justin Herbert pass to clinch last Sunday’s 22-16 victory over the Chargers.
He also has seven passes defensed and, according to NextGen stats, ranks first among all NFL safeties in three metrics. For the analytics crowd, those metrics are BallHawk Rate (35.0), Receptions Over Expected (minus-5.5) and Target Expected Points Added (minus-19.5) — and please don’t make me clean out the barn in my school shoes if I can’t provide any additional explanation.
Be it against the run or pass, Hufanga — like Don Henley’s protagonist in the Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane” — seems to be everywhere, all the time. He’s third on the 49ers with 36 tackles, behind linebackers Warner and Dre Greenlaw; among those are five tackles for loss — a product of his exquisitely timed run blitzes — tied for second among NFL safeties. He also has a sack, and he and veteran Tashaun Gipson have formed a seamless partnership on the back end.
On a defense full of decorated disruptors, including Warner, edge rusher Nick Bosa (a defensive player of the year candidate) and cornerback Charvarius “Mooney” Ward, Hufanga has proved he belongs. He’s having a Pro Bowl-type season — at least — and he isn’t close to satisfied.
“The standard is set,” he said. “It’s a high level. We swarm. We love it. And if you’re under that standard, you won’t be playing. You might not even be on this team.”
Hufanga, by his own standard, might not have arrived — but he isn’t going anywhere. In his eyes, this is just the warmup. For that, the Niners are profoundly grateful.