49ers rookie Dominick Puni discusses his FAST rise to starting lineup 📈

good um every day is like another step towards learning something new um especially in this offense difficult offense just to like kind of jump in and learn for your first time so just taking it day by day learning The Playbook there's still little details within every play that um I need to get better at so just doing that when you were drafted it seemed like you know that the starting five was already out there now with the injuries in front of you the number of reps you've gotten the amount of time in the preseason games can you kind of wrap your mind around that you could be out there Monday night against the Jets uh yeah it's definitely in the back of my head but um at the same time it's still you got to go play Vegas on Friday so I'm just kind of just taking it day by day that's kind of how I've done things my whole life um especially with football so I mean I'm not looking too far ahead cuz I know that can get you in trouble to like where you like where you are now so yeah in that first preseason game you seem like you kind of almost picked up Mason and kind of threw him across the line yeah what did you see on that play and then and that is that kind of the job of an offensive lineman you got to just kind of be prepared to help out any way you can huh yeah so I mean just pushing the pile is like a o linan thing I think um it's also just fun to do cuz like anytime you're on the one yard line or your running back's on the one yard line I mean you don't want to get you don't have to get up and run another play so you might as well just go try and push the pile and get him in now um I just pulled around uh got the linebacker out the way and I just saw him he was uh just kind of stood up at the one yard line and I was like I mean why not just go go try and score now so yeah did you come here with the with the goal of being a weak one starter or did you even let that enter your mind I didn't let in my mind I just thought um just attack every day like it can like I know I can um like I it's kind of like a repeated like thing that I keep saying but like just taking it day by day um obviously like I don't know I don't have the experience that all these other guys have so I mean I I'm kind of at a disadvantage there so just using these preseason games like the Reps and practice um just getting to uh know the guys that I'm playing next to um because you never know who it'll be so yeah I'm just using all that day by day the guys that have been in that position before you that were that are heard Spencer and Feliciano have them have they been helpful in terms of you know guiding your law yeah yeah they've been super helpful um Spence uh when I would come off the sideline I would ask him all the questions in the world he'll come up to me and tell me things that he thinks I could work on um so he's been super helpful in that way cuz obviously that's something that he don't even have to do um and I know a lot of guys or I've seen um on other teams like positions they'll kind of not Mentor the young guy just because I mean it's just a difficult thing to do but Spence and John they've been super helpful with me when we watch film they always help me out any cu they know all the little details they have all the experience that I don't have so I mean anything they tell me I'm I'm listening for sure talking about how different College offensive line players and the pros just how has that process been for you adjusting to going against the NFL guys now like how you not just the guys you're going up against but just the the way you play offensive line just the way way you how has it changed the process oh oh so yeah I just think the biggest thing um going from CLS the NFL is just the Playbook um the more you know the Playbook the faster you can play the more you know your Technique the less you question it so for me it's just like can I hammer these things down every day at practice cuz you know there's still things I need to get down for sure just like everybody else but um it football's football it doesn't change much it's just like the more you know what you're doing the more confident you are the quicker you do it so yeah you play Right Guard much before this year and how long did it take you to feel comfortable no I haven't played Right Guard oh here uh probably like a week yeah you see Brick P brick yeah yeah did that surprise you what you heard Fred Warner say about you yeah it did for sure I mean that's a crazy compliment um from a heck of a player um just I mean all my friends and family obviously saw it to him they were just sending it to me like this is crazy this is crazy but um yeah I mean that's just something like I'm going look back on whenever I'm done with football and I'm just be like wow like I mean this guy is probably going to be a Hall of Famer so the fact that he's saying that about me is is really cool yeah no he always tells me a good job in the locker room um like he'll tell me just keep keep stacking days keep working um being a rookie tough but you're doing a hell of a job so yeah he's awesome are there other defensive players that um talk to you give you advice to any the defensive lineman give you tips or anything like that yeah it's mostly the D tackles um because the D tackles they'll ask me and other o linan questions just about um how we'll block them if they do a certain move or what they saw if they're giving something away in their stance so it's really kind of like a iron sharpens iron thing so I mean it's just like that's the kind of talk we have and I'll ask them like if if they beat me on the Move I'm be like did I flash my hand too soon did I lean like what did you see there and they're more than willing to talk to me because um like we all have one ultimate goal at the end so did you do pure oh I'm sorry different types of defensive tackles that you go against you know really big guys like Elliot and sort of quicker guys like Kevin GI I mean um how's that been for you and any one of those types more difficult to to go against uh dayto day um I think all the D tackles here have their own game um like you said given is quick but he can bowl and obviously hard Graves he can bowl too he's he's crazy Malik Collins gives you about everything in the bag um which I think has been probably the most helpful thing for me is just seeing someone like that and then going against other guys um like on game days it's like I've seen everything they can give me obviously Jordan with the bull rush too and um KD so this D tackle group gives you everything from bow to speed to power to Ness and I think that's the best thing for me cuz you practice against that every day I mean it just kind of makes everything else easier in the game did we see you do a pirouette the other day in the in the one of those blocking schemes like you kind of flipped around uh what what was the talk in the room when they showed that play oh no it wasn't was talking are you talking about when I the spin yeah you around well so yeah so I just jumped the um the three um I saw the end drop I stepped on mck Kid's Foot and I knew I was like he's probably like anytime someone steps on my foot there's no way I'm going to get the block down so like I stepped on his foot I know I probably messed him up so I was like let me just try and see if I can help him out and um I did but that was completely on my fault like I stepped on his foot it kind of hindered him from doing what he needed to do so I just tried to make up for it you describe forester's coaching Style and what you've learned from him since you've been here yeah he's got an awesome coaching style it's very straightforward like he don't beat around the bush or nothing um which is the kind of coaching I think everybody needs uh he'll tell you good job when you're doing good but when you something you need to work on he he'll tell you no problem so he he'll get like he just gives it to you straight up but at the same time he teaches very well he's patient with you um he just takes his time he knows he's got a lot of experience too um obviously as a coach so I mean I like him he's he does a lot for me so what's the most challenging aspect of playing guard as opposed to tackle just working with less space um I think tackle is harder and pass Pro obviously when you get the one-on ones you got all that space out there I think run blocking is probably more of a harder job on the guard just cuz um heavier dudes and you got less space to really create room and run off the ball so I would say run blocking is probably a little bit harder you have to do anything in terms of uh you know when you came here you knew you were going to be a guard in terms of your body and just preparing for like you said those kind of those bigger bodies did you have to do anything differentation uh for my body um no not really so I play Garden 22 at Kansas um with the same build that I play tackle in 23 so I mean I figured I'd be fine just kind of just keep getting stronger and just kind of get a good anchor Jim naggie the senior ball Jim naggie said that you were about the only guy in this last draft that could play all five positions what is it about you that um people evaluate you where you could play every spot along the line um I I think I just have a good build for it honestly just kind of like I'm Not Too Tall where I can't go play center I'm not too short to where I can't play tackle I got kind of average arm length for both positions um but at the same time I go back to Kansas just uh Scott fols my on line coach and uh Lance Lio just cross training me in different positions I got to play center guard and Tackle at Kansas and that's it's probably the thing that's helped me out the most in the NFL is just being able to do so much because I understand how like they understood how much value it gives you in the NFL and I didn't know it at the time but obviously it just helps you out the more you're able to do um it just makes it easier on decisions call you Dominic rookie what they call everything I've heard Dom Dominic puny um pun dog uh everything rookie yeah everything so no not yet you guys do whatever you want so y appreciate you guys