Daniel Brunskill's versatility has allowed the San Francisco 49ers to plug in the offensive lineman wherever they needed. He proved invaluable last season, filling in for Mike McGlinchey at right tackle through four games and starting another in place of Joe Staley on the left side. He also filled in at right guard for Mike Person toward the end of the season.
While Brunskill is capable of playing all five positions along the offensive line, he told reporters on Monday that his training camp work has been more focused on two spots.
"It makes it a little bit easier, for sure," Brunskill said. "You get to focus on one position a little bit more. Right now, I've been taking right guard and some center snaps. It's a lot easier than going to all the different positions."
Brunskill added that he's been focusing on playing center a bit more than previous seasons. Starter Weston Richburg could begin the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list, which means missing the first six weeks of the regular season. Ben Garland has been taking his place during practices, but Brunskill will need to be ready.
Last offseason, Brunskill was busy focusing on making sure his snaps were good and that he was making the proper reads.
"This year, I'm focused on the technique a lot more, and things that I can improve that way," Brunskill said, "while also trying to be perfect with the snaps and with the IDs. It's helped me a little bit at guard, as well, because now that I'm used to IDing everything, now, when I'm at guard, it's easier because I already kind of know all the spots now. I know where everything's going, and it makes me ID what I need to do a lot faster."
Brunskill has been splitting first-team reps at right guard with Tom Compton. While there is competition there, the two have been working to help each other.
"He's just been a great guy to go against," Brunskill said. "Me and him are with each other in practice all the time and trying to learn and teach each other things that we can do better. And I'm trying to help him with him learning the offense, and then he helps me with tricks that he knows. He's just a great guy to learn from, and I'm really glad to have him on the team."
Brunskill added that he doesn't have a preference for which position he plays.
"My main thing is just to focus on what I can do to be as good as possible at each position," he said.
