Here lies Talanoa Hufanga’s Twitter account. Established May 2015. Vacated December 2022. The bio still reads “San Francisco 49ers Safety.” Tumbleweeds in cyberspace, a place and a time he has left far behind.
The last retweet: a message from old San Francisco 49ers teammate Fred Warner during awards season in 2022, the linebacker pleading Hufanga’s case.
“Please RETWEET for my brother and I!!” Warner wrote. “He deserve to make his first ProBowl!”
Three years later, at least one thing has stayed the same from San Francisco to Denver: Hufanga’s locker room shouts his name into a void he doesn’t touch. Hufanga went unselected for the 2026 Pro Bowl, as six other Broncos were tabbed Tuesday. Cornerback Pat Surtain II said he thought Hufanga was “snubbed.” Reserve safety JL Skinner scoffed at his locker. Head coach Sean Payton, even, affirmed he thought Hufanga should’ve made it.
Dissent filled Dove Valley from everywhere. Except from Hufanga, a man carefree enough to take offseason surfing trips with his former high school algebra teacher. Hufanga smiled Tuesday. He isn’t on social media much.
His NFL life has brought different waves, the tide drawing back and carrying a new challenge forward. In his first couple of years in San Francisco, Hufanga was just focused on starting. In his last couple of years there, he was just focused on getting healthy amid injuries. After signing with the Broncos in 2025, he’s just been focused on grasping a newfound status as a captain. No mind to a Pro Bowl.
“At the end of the day it’s like — we got bigger goals, too,” Hufanga told The Denver Post, asked about the perceived snub. “And, yeah, (the Pro Bowl) could be incentive-based to some people. Like, some people are truly — I’ve played with some guys that it’s like, ‘I lost money!’ But nah. That’s not me.
“I’m here to play the game,” he continued, “to win a ring.”
Hufanga’s next challenge has descended late in 2025, at the most critical point of the Broncos’ season and the most critical point of his young career. For 15 weeks, Hufanga and fellow safety Brandon Jones fused into the backbone of Vance Joseph’s defense. Hufanga exploded from the secondary into opposing backfields like a remote-controlled rocket launcher. Jones quietly helped blanket receivers on the back-end.
But Jones went down in Week 15 with a pec injury. Hufanga has but a few weeks to learn the intricacies of a new dance partner: Broncos mainstay P.J. Locke. And in Locke’s first start of the season in last Sunday’s 34-20 loss to the Jaguars, communication errors littered Denver’s defense.
“It’s hard to lose the chemistry like that on the back-end, for sure,” Surtain said Wednesday, on Hufanga and Jones. “Obviously, they was dialed in.
“But I feel like P.J., he’s been very good in this league stepping up, making great plays year-in and year-out,” Surtain said. “This is not a new role for him. I don’t see no drop-off with his production in terms of that. So I’m very excited to see what P.J. (brings) to the table.”
The 26-year-old Hufanga has racked up 101 tackles and six tackles for loss in 2025 as a Joker-type defender, relied upon for all varieties of man-coverage, run-stop and specialty pass-rush situations in Joseph’s scheme. Such specialty situations, however, take intrinsic adjustment and feel from other members of this Broncos secondary.
On one 3rd-and-9 third-quarter back-breaker against Jacksonville on Sunday — with the teams knotted at 17-17 — Joseph sent Hufanga to blitz off the left edge, with Locke on the other side of the formation matching up against Jacksonville tight end Brenton Strange. Strange, though, motioned inside to help block an all-out Denver blitz. That triggered Broncos nickel Ja’Quan McMillian to rush himself, and left Locke and cornerback Riley Moss by themselves in zone to deal with Jacksonville receivers Jakobi Meyers and Parker Washington.
Both Locke and Moss went with Meyers deep. Washington caught a short pass in the flat and turned upfield for 20 yards. And Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton ran upfield barking at Moss and Locke, pointing fingers at his helmet as if to say think.
Former Broncos All-Pro safety Justin Simmons posited on Twitter that the breakdown wasn’t specifically Locke’s fault, and explained to The Post it was an overall communication error.
“When you have a very extensive defense like VJ does — it can be difficult when people move around to get into the right call, and make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Simmons told The Post.
Simmons knows Hufanga’s current position as well as anybody, a former pillar of Joseph’s back-end in his first year in Denver. In 2023, when safety partner Kareem Jackson was suspended multiple times for unnecessary roughness, Locke filled in next to Simmons. Their partnership, Simmons recalled, improved as the year carried on. But instinctual safety-to-safety communication is “everything” to the health of a defense, Simmons said.
Talanoa Hufanga (9) of the Denver Broncos tackles Tre Tucker (1) of the Las Vegas Raiders during the first quarter at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)“Like, defensively, P.J. knows the same calls, he knows the same adjustments,” Simmons said. “But it’s the trust. It’s the reps, when you’re playing with each other, that you gain and you earn. And that’s not a P.J. fault, that’s not a Hufanga fault, that’s not a B-Jones fault.”
It’s not as if Locke’s hopping in blind, as Skinner said. The 28-year-old Texas product racked up 74 tackles in 15 starts in 2024, and had six tackles against the Jaguars as an asset against the run. But he’s struggled at coverage at times across the past two seasons — surrendering a 125.8 quarterback rating when targeted last season — and was picked on a couple of times by Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
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“I think that’s the cool thing about me and P.J. — we get to learn that through right now,” Hufanga said. ” And these are games … we gotta win these games out to get the No. 1 seed.
“But that’s the time where I get to grow with him in these next two going into it,” Hufanga continued, “so we can be ready when the playoffs come.”
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