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The 6 most important #49ers in Sunday’s Super Bowl:
The 49ers’ star power is apparent. They enter Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Chiefs boasting perhaps the best roster in the NFL.
While the top-to-bottom talent for San Francisco is strong, there are a handful of players who jump out as particularly essential for them against a red-hot Kansas City squad. These are the 49ers’ six most important players for securing a win and a sixth Lombardi Trophy:
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Super Bowl 58: #Bills connections on #Chiefs, #49ers:
The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will do battle in Super Bowl 58.
The Chiefs edged out the Buffalo Bills en route to the Big Game. As if you need any more reason to root against them, some former faces that played for Buffalo in the past are on the 49ers.
For those curious, here’s the list of Bills connections taking part in this year’s Super Bowl:
Former New York Giants OL Jon Feliciano is not at all surprised by the fallout between Brian Daboll and Wink Martindale.
Jon Feliciano, who was the New York Giants starting center last season, isn’t at all shocked by the breakup of his former head coach, Brian Daboll, and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
“I think it was unfortunate how that Wink and Dabes thing ended up,” Feliciano told reporters this week, via the New York Post.
Feliciano will be the starting right guard for the San Francisco 49ers in this Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs. His time with the Giants was short but he forged bonds with both men.
“I love both of them as coaches. I mean, once you get to know Wink and once you get to know Dabes it could be magic or it could end up how it ended up,” he said.
How it ended up was the fodder of many a media post across the league. Martindale and Daboll had a final blowout after the Giants fired two of Martindale’s closest confidants and coaches — brothers Drew and Kevin Wilkens — prompting Martindale to storm out of the facility and eventually leave the Giants’ organization.
“I think they’re both strong personalities and as you’ve seen, Dabes can explode,” Feliciano added. “As a guy that knows him, I know what you’re gonna get, and it’s not like a personal thing, it’s not anything but Dabes wants to win real, real bad. Even in Buffalo, he has more weight on his shoulders now that he’s the head coach. What did he do wrong that’s messing up the moment? And Wink is a strong dude. That’s probably what happened.”
In retrospect, Feliciano — a Long Island native — looks back on his time with the Giants favorably. He was a huge part of the first Giants team to reach the postseason in six years.
“To go with them to a new spot where there’s no expectations, they haven’t played well in a number of years,” Feliciano said. “Going there and being a leader and helping them turn it around, get into the playoffs, we had a playoff win, and doing it in New York it meant a lot more.”
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Jon Feliciano, Jauan Jennings, and Sam Darnold are some of the San Francisco 49ers free agents who could follow Klint Kubiak to the New Orleans Saints:
All signs point to Klint Kubiak putting pen to paper and being hired as the next New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator after his San Francisco 49ers are finished competing in Super Bowl LVIII — but he might not be the only new addition coming to New Orleans from San Francisco.
Beyond possible pickups from the 49ers coaching staff, there are several pending free agents who could intrigue the Saints. Here are 10 players on offense whose contracts are up in the spring, and who might follow Kubiak to New Orleans in free agency:
Former Raiders on Conference Championship teams
Sunday four teams will vie to raise their respective trophies for each conference and head to the Super Bowl. Among the players who have a shot at a ring one suited up for the Raiders while their former team sits at home watching.
12pm (3pm ET)
DT Neil Farrell
S Tyree Gillespie (PS)
WR Nelson Agholor
QB Josh Johnson*
OG John Simpson
CB Rock Ya-Sin
CB Daryl Worley (IR)
CB Trayvon Mullen (NFI)
3:30pm (6:30pm ET)
FB Jason Cabinda (PS)
DL Chris Smith (PS)
G Jon Feliciano
DE Clelin Ferrell (IR)
S Erik Harris (PS)
WR Willie Snead IV (PS)
*Raiders offseason roster or practice squad
Bold demotes former Raiders draft pick
Some of these players are starters while others won’t be active for the game. But if they contributed at all to the season for their team, they could get a ring for their efforts and be part of the celebration just the same.
And you just never know who will step up and be a factor either in this Sunday’s game or the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in two weeks.
The #49ers aren’t sure who’s starting at RG in the playoffs. That may not matter … but it also may matter a lot:
The 49ers are almost fully healthy heading into their divisional playoff matchup vs. the Green Bay Packers, but they’ve not yet decided what their starting offensive line is going to look like.
Offensive line coach and run game coordinator Chris Foerster on Wednesday indicated there’s some uncertainty on the offensive front with who is going to start at right guard.
Spencer Burford was given the job in training camp, but late in the year after veteran Jon Feliciano saw action due to injury, it threw the team’s starting OL into question. It’s something the coaching staff hasn’t resolved yet with a couple days left before kickoff.
“We’re working through that right now,” Foerster told reporters in a press conference. “Jon had some, we were working through some things the last week of the season. I think we’re going to see, probably you’ll see some of both guys in the game as far as who starts and who doesn’t. Although I’m not sure at this point, I think we’re working out through the week and it could be a hot hand thing, could be a let one guy just go with it and see, I don’t know. We’re still, both guys have been working and we have to have flexibility in there.”
There’s a fine line between having flexibility and not knowing who the team’s five best offensive linemen are.
Feliciano saw action in 10 games at both guard spots and center. Of his 478 snaps, 26 came at C, 208 at LG and 244 at RG. He wound up the team’s second-highest graded offensive lineman by Pro Football Focus. Trent Williams was the only regular OL ahead of him. Feliciano surrendered 15 pressures and no sacks in 257 pass blocking snaps.
Burford, meanwhile, was the team’s lowest-graded offensive lineman. He allowed 33 pressures and five sacks in 460 pass blocking snaps according to PFF’s data. The 33 pressures are the seventh-most among starting RGs. It is worth noting four of those pressures and one of the sacks came when he was thrust into playing right tackle against the Ravens.
For now the in-season productivity makes it pretty clear the veteran Feliciano is a better option at RG for the 49ers. Whether the team believes that is not immediately clear, though Foerster’s comments makes it seem as though it’s more of a coin flip.
If the team does deem that competition close enough to go with a rotation, then Feliciano’s versatility might make him more valuable to the 49ers as a reserve who can plug in wherever they need.
“My thing is that [OL Aaron] Banks has had some things this season,” Foerster said. “So the flexibility of Jon being able to work all the positions that’s always going to leave us making sure that Jon’s ready at all the spots. He’s the backup center, he’s the backup left guard. So that always weighs into our equation a little bit. So, we have to keep some flexibility there.”
Most teams roll with a starting five on the offensive line that stays together when healthy. It sounds like the 49ers have other plans heading into the divisional playoffs vs. the Packers, and how well that works out could ultimately decide just how far they go in the postseason.
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The #49ers could see some changes coming on the offensive line.
The 49ers went a little unconventional on their offensive line last season. Rookie Spencer Burford would start at RG and veteran Daniel Brunskill would rotate in throughout the game. This year they’ve only rolled with Burford at RG, but it sounds like that may be changing soon.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Monday in a conference call talked about the play of veteran OL Jon Feliciano after he filled in at left guard for the injured Aaron Banks. Feliciano has acquitted himself well in multiple stints at LG for San Francisco this season – well enough that Shanahan said a rotation with Burford could be on the table.
“It had been discussed,” Shanahan said. “Nothing against Spencer, but I wanted to make sure that Jon knew that we were aware of how well we thought he had been doing. So that was something I just had mentioned to him and was planning on doing it. Hadn’t thought how we would do it yet. I just thought he had earned to be out there a little bit and unfortunately Aaron got hurt, but we never looked into anymore after that because we knew he was going to be up this week and this week going forward.”
Banks is dealing with a toe injury he suffered in Week 8. He missed the team’s return from its bye week, and is slated to miss Week 11 as well. That means at least for now Feliciano will man the LG spot, where he was very good against the Jaguars. It’s worth noting Burford also played well in Jacksonville in what was probably his best game of the season.
Once Banks returns though we could see the 49ers switch up how they’re operating at the other guard position. Burford was more or less given the job in camp without much competition. Now Feliciano has created competition through his in-game and practice play and it sounds like we’ll see another rotation at RG again once the rest of the offensive line is healthy.
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The San Francisco 49ers remains curiously obsessed with the New York Giants and, particularly, quarterback Daniel Jones.
It’s easy to kick a guy when he’s down. That’s what San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead is doing to New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones these days.
The 49ers played the Giants last Thursday, September 21, and defeated them soundly. Jones was hit six times, including two sacks, neither recorded by Armstead.
The Seahawks ravaged Jones on Monday night, hitting him 13 times with 10 sacks. Armstead went on social media to lament that he was a week too late to the party.
49ers DE Arik Armstead said this about Daniel Jones after their loss vs. Seattle 👀 pic.twitter.com/M8AyXFjIdM
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 3, 2023
Former Giants center Jon Feliciano, who is also currently with the 49ers, also weighed in.
Hate to see it
— Jonathan Feliciano (@MongoFeliciano) October 3, 2023
While Feliciano insists he wasn’t trolling, that’s all the 49ers have done since their game with the Giants. Several other anonymous 49ers also took shots at Jones from the shadows, some even weighing in on his contract situation — a serious no-no in NFL circles.
So, why are the 49ers obsessed with the Giants and Jones? There doesn’t seem to be an answer to that question.
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The 49ers reserve offensive lineman has been ruled out for the remainder of the contest against the Cardinals.
For the remainder of Sunday’s Week 4 divisional contest, the San Francisco 49ers will be thin on the interior offensive line.
Coming out of the halftime locker room, the 49ers announced reserve offensive lineman Jon Feliciano has been ruled out for the remainder of the contest due to a concussion.
It’s unclear when the injury happened. Feliciano serves as the backup center for the 49ers’ line. With Feliciano out, the 49ers have two reserve linemen on the bench with Jaylon Moore and Matt Pryor.
Via @49ers on Twitter:
https://x.com/49ers/status/1708604812575875145?s=20
This post originally appeared on Niners Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
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Here’s a look at the latest injury updates for the 49ers at training camp, including Elijah Mitchell’s adductor injury.
As training camp progresses, the bumps and bruises continue to grow in Santa Clara. On Thursday, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan provided an injury update for four players, including a key member of the backfield.
Here’s a look at the latest round of updates regarding injuries for the 49ers at training camp.
This post originally appeared on Niners Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
