SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Nick Bosa is encouraged by the pace of his recovery from another major knee surgery and believes he's on track to return to the field during training camp and start the season on time for the San Francisco 49ers.
That wasn't always the case for the star edge rusher in the early days after he had his third major knee injury of his career when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in Week 3 last season.
“It
was rough early on, obviously,” Bosa said Thursday in his first news conference since the injury last September. “You just want to be able to play, especially how good things were going for the defense and me personally. I felt I was at a pretty high level to start the year. Then as you start out wanting to quit, never play again and never put your body in that position again. Then slowly you realize that you love this game and you want to get back to it. I never doubted that I could get back to where I am.”
The reports so far on Bosa's recovery have been positive and he is on target to be back on the field this summer. Bosa said his previous experiences with this type of injury helped him during the rehabilitation process.
He said he did a better job not rushing the recovery, knowing he had more than 11 months between the injury and the start of the 2026 season.
“When I did it in ’20, it was just like ... get back, push every milestone as hard as you possibly can,” Bosa said. “I probably dealt with some stuff that I didn’t need to deal with in terms of just kind of the bumps in the road of recovery. Now, I’m taking it slow and I kind of have references to go back and look at.”
Bosa's return will be a key help for a 49ers defense that ranked last in the NFL last season with 20 sacks.
Bosa has had at least nine sacks in the five seasons when he didn't get hurt in the opening month as he has been one of the most productive edge rushers ever since being drafted second overall in 2019.
Bosa has made the Pro Bowl in all five of his healthy seasons and won the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022, when he led the league with 18 1/2 sacks.
Bosa’s 74 1/2 sacks in the regular season and playoffs are the fifth-most in the NFL since he entered the league in 2019 despite missing nearly two full seasons. His 280 total pressures rank fourth-most in the NFL in that span, according to Sportradar.
Bosa didn't seem optimistic about a possible reunion with his older brother, Joey, who remains unsigned after playing last season in Buffalo.
“I think he’s working on his golf game right now, so I don’t think he is thinking too much about football,” Nick Bosa said.
Joey Bosa turns 31 in July and is coming off a season when he had five sacks in 15 games for the Bills. While the 49ers could use more juice at pass rush, adding Bosa doesn't seem to be a likely option at this point.
“I look at our team as kind of we have our team and anyone else that we can figure out to bring, especially someone like that, that’d be awesome,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. "But that stuff’s not always possible.”
Running back Isaac Guerendo's chance to bounce back from a disappointing second season hit a setback when he tore a pectoral muscle lifting weights. Shanahan said he expects Guerendo to be sidelined until late in training camp.
Guerendo showed promise as a rookie after being drafted in the fourth round in 2024, rushing for 430 yards on 84 carries with four touchdowns.
But Guerendo fell to third team last season after the team acquired Brian Robinson to back up Christian McCaffrey. Guerendo didn't get on the field for a single offensive snap all season, being relegated to special teams duties.
The Niners also waived running back Sincere McCormick and signed running backs Jermar Jefferson and Jordan Mims for depth in the offseason.
Safety Darrick Forrest was placed on injured reserve.
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