All 49ers

How the 49ers have Worn Down Nick Bosa this Season

Nick Bosa hasn't quite played up to his standard this season.

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) during warmups before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) during warmups before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
In this story:

Nick Bosa hasn't quite played up to his standard this season.

His numbers are fine. He's on pace for 10.5 sacks this season, which is what he had last season. But he's fading in the critical moments in fourth quarters when he typically would close out the victory. Just this past week, he failed to drag down Baker Mayfield on a critical fourth-down play that gave the Buccaneers life. In the past, Bosa would have sacked Mayfield.

Through nine games this season, Bosa leads the 49ers in missed tackles with 11. He just seems a step slower than usual. And maybe that's because he's worn out.

Bosa has played a career-high 86 percent of the 49ers' defensive snaps this season. His previous career high was 78 percent in 2021. Until this season, the 49ers always have done a good job keeping Bosa fresh. But new defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen has a different approach.

"We want to win the game," Sorensen said on Thursday. "I think it's something Bosa, he's willing to do. And obviously, you want to protect him, but there were a couple games early on, he didn't have as many snaps either. So you can talk percentage, but it's also depending on the game. I think that happened early in the year, a high percentage, but some of those games we were in the fifties. So, it really depends on the game situation."

Bosa is on pace to play 903 snaps this season. His career high is 841.

Sorensen needs to back off.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News