Bosa Sidelined Again
Nick Bosa’s comeback just hit another wall. The San Francisco 49ers pass rusher will miss “a few weeks” with a calf injury sustained at practice on Thursday, ESPN reported Friday, and a stint on injured reserve has not been ruled out.
The timing stings. Bosa, 28, had only just worked his way back from a torn right ACL suffered in Week 3 of last season, an injury that cost him the rest of that campaign. He played 70 snaps across San Francisco’s first two games this year, recording seven tackles, two of them for a loss, and a single quarterback hit. He will not play Sunday when the 2-0 49ers host the 1-1 Arizona Cardinals in Santa Clara.
Try it for $0.99.
A Career Interrupted Twice in Two Years
Since San Francisco took him with the second overall pick in 2019, Bosa has piled up 64.5 sacks, 13 forced fumbles, 169 quarterback hits and 285 tackles across 87 games, 85 of them starts. Those numbers put him among the most disruptive edge rushers of his generation when healthy, which has increasingly become the operative word. Between the ACL tear last year and this fresh calf issue, Bosa has now opened back-to-back seasons compromised by injury.
For a defense that leaned on his pressure to mask other issues up front, losing him again, even for a few weeks, changes the math. San Francisco’s pass rush ranked among the league’s most productive in the two games Bosa played, and Sunday’s matchup with Arizona will be the first real test of how the unit performs without him on the field.
His track record explains why the injury carries weight beyond two missed games. Bosa won the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022, and the following year he signed a five-year contract extension that made him the highest-paid defensive player in the league at the time. Durability, not talent, has been the recurring question mark since.
What Comes Next
The 49ers have not announced corresponding roster moves, and Bosa’s placement on injured reserve, if it happens, would set a minimum four-game absence rather than the vaguer “few weeks” window reported Friday. Either way, San Francisco’s coaching staff will need to lean on its rotational pass rushers while its best one recovers from an injury that, unlike the ACL, is not supposed to be season-altering.
Discover the rest of our NFL news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply