The folks at Goku Korean BBQ & Hot Pot in South San Jose always just knew Talanoa Hufanga as a customer.
This was his _spot_ when he was a San Francisco 49er, Hufanga proclaimed. He and older brother TJ would go twice a week, and staff recognized them well enough to predict their drink orders. For TJ: water, sometimes a Pepsi. For the younger Hufanga: water, sometimes a strawberry lemonade.
“They treat me good over there,” Hufanga said in early August back in the Bay for the Broncos-49ers joint practice.
The catch: the manager of Goku did not actually recognize the name of NFL safety Talanoa Hufanga when asked. Evidently, to them, he was just a guy who really liked Korean barbecue.
For four years, Hufanga ingrained himself into the fabric of San Francisco. He’d pop by unannounced to local Friday night high school football games. Some in the stands would recognize him and throw up a “T” with their arms, repping his Tongan heritage. His brother is a realtor in Santa Clara. It was home, and home has always meant family for Hufanga — the ultimate reason he chose to sign with the Broncos in free agency, wanting a comfortable place to raise his household.
On the grass, though, the new soil in Denver is a challenge. Hufanga is discussed like a vet in NFL circles. But he is still all of 25 years old, and has only played in one NFL city and one NFL system. A major part of defensive pass-game coach Jim Leonhard’s job this offseason, he told The Denver Post last week, has been game-planning one-on-one with Hufanga to acclimate him to defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s thinking.
“Talanoa, I think, has a certain reputation because of what he was asked to do in San Francisco,” Leonhard said. “It was very specific. It wasn’t as flexible of a scheme as we have — a little bit more defined roles in coverage.
“So, sometimes you look at that and, ‘Oh, well, I don’t think he can do this.’ Well, he wasn’t asked to do it, and turned into an All-Pro player in that system. And the trick is getting him to that level in the new system again.”
The Broncos’ scheme, Leonhard clarified, will involve Hufanga in more man and match coverage than he played in San Francisco. And more than he played in college at USC, too.
Denver has keyed in on Hufanga as a difference-maker since last fall, when pro-personnel director AJ Durso identified the safety as a potential fit in the coming free-agency period, now-assistant GM Reed Burckhardt told The Post this offseason. The tape is there, as Leonhard said. The communication. The physicality. Hufanga had [one of the most ridiculous defensive plays of camp](https://www.denverpost.com/2025/08/01/broncos-camp-report-talanoa-hufanga-bo-nix/) on an August interception of Bo Nix, after all.
“It’s just making sure he’s comfortable with the defense,” Leonhard said, “and then getting a few extra reps on the things he wasn’t asked to do too much.
“He’s done a great job, and the biggest credit to him is just — he wants to be coached. He wants honest feedback after every drill, after every game. Not everybody wants that.”
He has a familiar partner in the process in returning safety Brandon Jones. Hufanga’s safeties coach at USC was Craig Naivar, who previously coached Jones at Texas. They stand the same height. Hufanga even watched Jones tape while he was in college.
“The cool thing about it is, the first week I got here, he’s like, ‘Hey, you wanna get some work in?'” Hufanga said in July. “There was no hesitation.”
The two “hit it off very well early,” Leonhard put it. And as Hufanga learns Joseph’s schematic tendencies, he and Jones are amorphous for each other’s strengths.
Naivar coached both, at different times, and sees overlapping traits. Not quite two sides of a coin. Hufanga is slightly stronger, Naivar reflected. Jones is slightly faster. But both can close on routes over the middle, provide run support and blitz.
“I would call those two, thunder and lightning,” Naivar said.
The pairing can give a coordinator flexibility in matchups, Naivar said. They’ve already built “faith” in each other, as Jones said during camp. And Naivar guarantees, knowing the two competitors, that they will spend the season competing for who racks up more tackles.
“If my daughter said she wanted to marry one of ’em,” Naivar said, “I’d tell her, ‘Don’t mess it up.’ ”
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Originally Published: August 18, 2025 at 11:50 AM MDT