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Nick Bosa Says the 49ers are Having an "Off Year"

What a difference a year makes.

Grant Cohn

Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa (97) between plays against the Los Angeles Rams during the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa (97) between plays against the Los Angeles Rams during the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
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A year ago, the 49ers beat the Lions in the NFC Championship at Levi's Stadium.

On Monday night, they'll have a rematch. Both teams are missing lots of key players due to injury. And yet the Lions are 13-2 while the 49ers are 6-9 and eliminated from the playoffs with two weeks remaining.

What a difference a year makes.

On Thursday, Nick Bosa stood at his locker and discusses the 49ers' disastrous season in relation to the Lions' continued success.

Q: How do you feel the mentality is throughout the locker room?

BOSA: "I think it's good. It's obviously not where you want to be this time of year. It's different, especially watching where we were at last year against this team. Just that feeling of December, January football. It's a feeling that I've gotten used to, being really competitive and being in the mix. But I think we're doing a good job of staying engaged. This is our job, so we're going to finish it strong."

Q: You mentioned seeing where you were at last year relative to the Lions. What has it been like seeing them ascend while you guys have taken a few steps back? How do you reconcile that?

BOSA: "I don't know how to answer that. They're doing great and we had an off year."

Q: Is it hard being in here? It's abnormally quiet in the locker room. Is it hard to come in here each day?

BOSA: "No, it's not hard to come into work. There are much worse jobs to have than playing a sport and making good money. Happy to come in."

MY TAKE: It seems like the only thing motivating Bosa at this point in the season is a paycheck. He seems disengaged.

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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.

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