The San Francisco 49ers needed the best version of Nick Bosa in 2025 to compete defensively. The team was comfortable with the number of veterans leaving because they still had their superstar pass rusher.
The season began like a typical Bosa year. He had three tackles for loss, a sack, and a forced fumble to open the season in Seattle. He added another sack, five pressures, a couple of tackles for loss, and nine tackles the following week against the Saints.
Bosa’s dominance looked like it would continue
in Week 3 when he had a quarterback hit and a forced fumble. But for the second time this decade, he tore his ACL in September.
When your roster is as top-heavy as the 49ers’ is, losing any one of your stars is devastating. But when it’s Bosa, the loss becomes catastrophic. Everything revolved around Bosa defensively. The rotations along the defensive line, the role players, the rookie development, the linebacker play, and how long the secondary has to cover. Everything.
Basic Info
Age: 28 (birthday is in October)
Experience: 7 accrued seasons
Height: 6’4
Weight: 266 pounds
Cap Status
The 49ers converted $21.4 million of Bosa’s salary to a signing bonus. That reduced Bosa’s cap number in 2026 by $17.17 million. However, that move increased Bosa’s cap number by $4.29 million in each future year of his contract. Bosa’s deal runs through the 2028 season.
Despite the high cap numbers, Bosa’s guarantees run out after 2027. After the conversion, Bosa is owed $1.215 guaranteed in 2026, and the guarantees in his salary are only $769,471 next year.
Will this version of Nick Bosa look like the last post-ACL Bosa?
In his first post-ACL game, Bosa had a sack, five pressures, and three tackles for loss against the Lions. He had a tackle for loss in every game but two that season. It wasn’t until Week 12 that Bosa had fewer than three pressures in a game.
Bosa is a cyborg. He’s going to push himself to the limit so that he can maintain the status quo of the superstar that he is. Players don’t reach his level without a drive that would drive the common man to quit after a month of rehabbing.
Are the 49ers putting too much on Bosa returning to top-tier form for their defense to be successful? Do they have any choice? The investments to the left (or right) of Bosa will give the defensive line the deepest unit they’ve had since 2022.
The duo of Osa Odighizuwa and Mykel Williams should threaten any interior pressure numbers by season’s end if they remain healthy. If the offense is as good as expected, then the impact rookies Romello Height and Gracen Halton should have in Year 1 will only increase. Progression from Alfred Collins will go a long way, while role players like Keion White on Sam Okuayinonu should be even more valuable with less on their plate.
But it all hinges on Bosa. There’s little reason to doubt that Bosa will be effective. Save 2024, which was the lone lost year since 2021, Bosa has finished the other three seasons as a top-five pass rusher. Let’s act as if Bosa’s play slips. And at the ripe old age of 29, he’s only one of the top 15 best pass rushers in the league.
The 49ers have built their defense through the defensive line. That line goes through Bosa. If that’s Bosa’s floor, do the 49ers have enough talent on defense to compete for a Super Bowl, barring any outlier performances? We’re about to find out.
