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The 49ers Shouldn’t Play Dre Greenlaw or Nick Bosa vs. the Dolphins

Do the right thing.

Grant Cohn

November 27, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) and defensive end Nick Bosa (97) during the first quarter against the New Orleans Saints at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
November 27, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) and defensive end Nick Bosa (97) during the first quarter against the New Orleans Saints at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
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All credit to Dre Greenlaw and Nick Bosa for their heroic efforts last week against the Rams. Those two should not play Sunday in Miami.

The game against the Rams actually mattered, and Greenlaw and Bosa played as though it was the last game of their careers. Greenlaw especially. He made his triumphant return from an Achilles tear he suffered in the Super Bowl and recorded a whopping eight tackles in the first half alone. He was the best player on the field. He played so hard and so well, he injured his knee and couldn't finish the game. And Bosa played the entire game with an injured oblique. He risked further injury to try to save the 49ers season.

But the 49ers lost because their offense scored a mere six points. They wasted an outstanding defensive performance. And now the 49ers have less than a one percent chance to make the playoffs. The Seahawks and Rams would have to lose their remaining games AND tie each other. Good luck.

And that means the 49ers should sit Greenlaw and Bosa. Both were listed as questionable for Sunday's game which means neither is 100 percent healthy. And there's no reason for either one to play through injury in a game that does not matter.

Greenlaw and Bosa are franchise cornerstones. The 49ers have seen enough from Greenlaw to know they're going to re-sign him this offseason, and Bosa is under contract through 2028. There is nothing the 49ers need to see from them against the Dolphins.

Playing those two would increase the 49ers' chances of winning and hurt their draft position. At this point in the season, draft position is what matters.

Do the right thing.

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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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