We may have gotten an answer on the "soreness" that has kept San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa out of the team's last four training camp practices.
The 49ers haven't specified the nature of Bosa's soreness, but NBC's Mike Florio on Monday's Pro Football Talk Live said Bosa is dealing with back soreness. However, Florio seemingly walked back his declaration almost immediately.
After saying Bosa is working through back soreness, which is the first time a reporter has pointed toward a specific ailment for the 28-year-old defensive end, Florio teed up a clip of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan talking about Bosa on Saturday while addressing reporters in a press conference.
"No. He was doing great, and then he got sore just going through some
of the individual," Shanahan said. "You wish that didn’t happen, but no, there’s no concern to where something’s happened that is a big setback or anything. We’ll wait until the soreness goes away and evaluate why the soreness has happened, but I still feel pretty good about that.”
In reacting to the Shanahan quote Florio pumped the brakes on the nature of Bosa's injury, citing "the sheet" instead of a source as he would for a typical report.
"When someone is speaking extemporaneously I never know how much to trust that their words were chosen precisely," Florio said. "Sometimes the words just come out of your mouth without much thought. Not even a Freudian slip, it's just the word comes out. But when he says that 'there’s no concern to where something’s happened that is a big setback or anything,' that opens the door to 'is it a small setback? Is it a medium setback? Is it a setback? That's why when I saw 'soreness' and 'setback' I just assumed it was the knee. I see 'back soreness' here on the sheet so I guess it is back soreness."
Perhaps this just a mistake from a producer and the information Florio was working with wasn't properly vetted beforehand. This happens on sports talk shows and in most cases would be the easy solution to point at. The host is covering the entire league and sometimes has to rely on producers to nail down details. The producer hands them "the sheet" and the host trusts the producer to ensure those details are correct.
It's tough with Florio specifically, though, because his co-host is Chris Simms. Simms is one of Kyle Shanahan's best friends and one of the few people who knew about Shanahan's car accident before it was reported. Whether or not Simms knows something that isn't supposed to be public matters less than the perception that he does.
That's why when Florio, who isn't typically flippant with his reporting, suddenly says "back soreness" when it hasn't been reported anywhere else, an eyebrow goes up. Was it an honest mistake, or did he hear something from Simms (or another source) and let it slip before citing "the sheet."
The only way we'll know is if/when the 49ers or Bosa make it clear why he's been absent. The team isn't required to divulge injury information until the first practice week of the regular season begins.
For now, the main issue for San Francisco is that Bosa is dealing with soreness that may or may not be improving with a month to go until the regular season opener.
Bosa is still recovering from a torn ACL he suffered in Week 3 last season. He was a limited participant throughout the start of camp, participating in individual drills before sitting out the team portions according to reporters at the team facility. It seemed initially that the soreness keeping Bosa out of practice was just a precautionary measure the team was taking early in camp. Now that his absence has stretched into four consecutive practices it's hard not to raise a red flag.
San Francisco general manager John Lynch told reporters the day before camp started that Bosa wouldn't begin camp on the PUP list. Instead the team opted to ease their star defensive end into action to ramp him up for the regular season opener against the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 10 in Melbourne, Australia.
Bosa hasn't been spotted at any of the last four practices which raised questions about the severity of his soreness. There was some speculation that it had to do with his surgically repaired ACL. If it is back soreness keeping him out it may come as a relief to the club since it would not an aggravation of his knee injury. However, if there is a back issue that cropped up because of the recovery from his ACL injury then it could be an issue that lingers beyond training camp if the 49ers don't manage it properly.
San Francisco added some depth to their defensive line in the offseason, but Bosa is the tip of the spear for their pass rush. If he's hobbled or absent it's hard to find a ton of solutions to bolstering a pass rush that was the NFL's worst a season ago.
The 49ers will host a joint practice with the Tennessee Titans on Tuesday before their preseason opener against the Titans on Thursday at Levi's Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 6:00pm Pacific Time. Bosa's participation in either event remains in doubt no matter what type of soreness he's working through.
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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Did reporter with tie to Kyle Shanahan reveal Nick Bosa's injury?
