The Biggest Question Facing the 49ers Defense in 2024

The biggest question facing the 49ers defense in 2024 has nothing to do with rookie defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen.

Grant Cohn | Jul 17, 2024

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) reacts after sacking Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (not pictured) during the first quarter of Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

The biggest question facing the 49ers defense in 2024 has nothing to do with rookie defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen.

He's a factor, but not the biggest one. Neither is Dre Greenlaw's Achilles tear or Arik Armstead's release. Those are mere footnotes.

The biggest question facing the 49ers defense in 2024 is Nick Bosa. Their defense goes as he goes. In 2022, he was the Defensive Player of the Year and they had the NFL's no. 1 defense. So they made him the highest-paid non-quarterback ever at the time assuming he would continue to be the best defensive player in the league.

But he wasn't the best defensive player in the league last season. He wasn't even the best defensive end in the league. Nor was he a first-team All Pro or a second-team All Pro. He was good, but not nearly as good as he was in 2022 when he was a human cheat code. And that's the main reason the 49ers defense regressed last season.

They can blame former defensive coordinator Steve Wilks as much as they want, but it's not his fault that Bosa recorded just 10.5 sacks and played uninspired run defense last season. That was Bosa's fault. The 49ers are paying him to be the best and he fell well short.

Now he needs to prove that he can bounce back and be the player they're paying him to be. Because his brother, Joey Bosa, fell off drastically after he signed his huge extension with the Chargers and never has bounced back.

Let's see if Nick is built differently.

Published Jul 17, 2024

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.