Sports’s Illustrated’s Albert Breer caught up with San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa, where they discussed surgery, rehab, and why Bosa jokingly could play for a handful more years at an elite level.
Bosa said, “I had a little tendinitis from my high school ACL, and he cleaned that up while he fixed my ACL. That’s gone. So it’s like an improvement. So once I’m through this rehab, I feel like my right knee — because that was kind of a chronic issue that I had a little bit, and he cleaned that up in my quad
tendon, and that hasn’t been an issue at all — could feel better when I’m done with this recovery.”
Bosa explained why he feels faster after his third ACL injury:
“You learn something every time you do it, every year really, injury or not, you kind of learn how to prepare a certain way to be your best. When I came off of the one in 2020, it forced me to..I don’t know how to explain it. Honestly, my legs get so big when I have years built up of training them. And it’s not like I trained to bodybuild my legs. They get big. And I feel like it’s just an observation that I’ve made: coming off that injury in 2020, I was moving better with less mass on my legs.”
If you’ve ever seen Bosa in person, he has tree trunks for legs. It’s almost as if he’s waddling from side to side when he’s walking because of it. Good on Bosa for evolving and understanding what his body is telling him.
He continued: “This is a speed game. I’m a power rusher, but speed creates power, and the way you can move is everything. So I think there’s something to, ‘I move better when my legs aren’t quite as massive.’ I kind of have that feeling right now.”
We’ll see how long it takes until the 49ers clear Bosa to return to practice as a full participant. I bet the offensive line is content doing 11-on-11 drills without Bosa.
Bosa also told Breer, “I should play four more years because I tear my ACL every five years.” The 49ers would welcome Bosa with open arms if he could play for another contract.
