Bosa looks ready for comeback season
49ers’ star defensive lineman looking fast, explosive and chiseled
COSTA MESA >> Nick Bosa has the least body fat among 49ers players, and he’s not afraid to show it.
To get ready for next week’s entry into full-team drills, this is the tale of how he’s looked in workouts on the side, typically with a trainer after defensive line drills at training camp:
• His abdominal muscles line up like soldiers. They’re an eightpack glistening in sweat on his bare midriff, below his No. 97 jersey that’s tucked into his shoulder pads.
• His gold uniform pants are cut-offs, sheered midway up his super-sized quadriceps.
• His hands, covered by red gloves. His feet, adorned with metallic-gold Jordan cleats. His hair, perfectly barbered.
His look is not to resemble a professional model. But, if you’re looking for a lean, mean, passrushing machine, he’s made himself into a state-of-the-art prototype for 2021.
This is Bosa’s comeback season, starting Sept. 12 when the 49ers open at Detroit.
“On the side, it looks really good,” defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans said after Friday’s
practice against the host Los Angeles Chargers. “I would say that his drills, all the individual stuff that he’s doing, he’s looking fast, he’s looking explosive.
“I think he’s going to be better than he was his rookie year.” Oh! My.
Bosa was the NFL defensive rookie of the year after recording 13 sacks, including four in the playoffs. No player more than Bosa, with apologies to quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance, could dictate the 49ers’ fate.
The Bosa veneer is impres
sive, for sure. What’s inside his left knee — and his mindset — ultimately could decide how he rebounds.
“Anytime guys come back off of injuries, the biggest hurdle is just mentally,” said Ryans, whose linebacker career (2005-15) was interrupted by Achilles tears in 2010 and ’14.
“Just falling on the ground and getting up and understanding that you’re OK, most guys just have to go through that process,” Ryans added.
Bosa has stuck to a tight rehabilitation schedule. In his only interview of camp on July 29, he said he’s on track for the Sept. 12 regular season opener, adding: “I’m hoping to ramp it up toward that and give it all I’ve got Week 1.”
He is 11 months removed from when the anterior cruciate ligament ruptured in his left knee. He was bent backward on a run play in the 49ers’ second game last season, on the New York Jets’ suspect turf at MetLife Field. His season was done, and, essentially, so were the 49ers, who went 6-10 with myriad other injuries.
Bosa’s transformation after surgery began here in Orange County, where the 49ers practiced Thursday and Friday against the Los Angeles Chargers before today’s preseason game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Only 10 minutes from the Chargers’ practice facility is MOTUS Specialists Physical Therapy, the ACL recovery center for Bosa and then-49ers teammate Solomon Thomas, who also was hurt in the 49ers-Jets game.
Orange County is also familiar to Bosa. His older brother Joey lives there and works for the L.A. Chargers, for whom he has recorded 47.5 sacks in 63 games over five seasons. The Bosa brothers lived and trained together before Nick was drafted No. 2 overall by the 49ers, and big brother’s pad was where Nick crashed after his rehabilitation sessions earlier this year, before he completed his offseason work in the Bosa’s hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“I’m happy he’s healthy,” Joey Bosa said after Friday’s practice. “I know he’s going to be an absolute menace out there.”
Their similarities go beyond both wearing No. 97.
Garoppolo joked after Thursday’s practice that Joey Bosa sounded just like his brother when he apologized (“Sorry, Jim”) for stripping the football on a sack.
Tight end George Kittle said of the Bosas: “They move very similar. It looks slow but it’s very fast and powerful. Their whole body just kind of moves like water, going the least amount of resistance.”
Nick Bosa is 6-foot-4 and he reported to camp at 260 pounds, 5 pounds lighter than in his rookie season of stardom. Joey Bosa is listed at 6-5 and 280 pounds. Kittle noted that size difference allows Nick Bosa to get better leverage by hitting “lower to high” into shoulder pads.
“They’re cool, calm, chilling by themselves,” Kittle said. “Then you put them on the football field and they’re violent, aggressive, making play after play and are relentless.
“They don’t turn off until they’re on the sideline, then they’re back to their normal selves. It’s very strange and I love it.”
Other star pass rushers have rebounded from ACL tears: the Denver Broncos’ Von Miller and Bradley Chubb and the Chargers’ Melvin Ingram, for example.
This year’s all-star cast of ACL returnees include Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari, Giants running back Saquon Barkley, Titans tackle Taylor Lewan and pass rusher Bud Dupree.
Not all of the 49ers’ ACL recoveries have worked well. But some have, to some of their brightest stars, such as Jerry Rice (1997), NaVorro Bowman (2013 postseason) and Garoppolo (2018).
“I’m just excited to see Nick Bosa back on the field,” Kittle said. “Because he’s one of the best players in the NFL.”
“Every day Nick’s got to hold himself back and everything, and we’re doing it too, but we’ve got a plan,” coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday. “Nick’s sticking to it and it’s smart that he is.”
Part of that plan was nutrition. Bosa changed his game plan this offseason, thriving off vegetables, salads and proteins. He recently received the COVID vaccine, according to The Athletic, which allowed him to travel with the 49ers for this first trip.
He won’t be playing in today’s preseason game against the Chargers. But come Wednesday, he’s expected to finally appear in team drills after a taxing year.
“Easing him back in coming off of injury, it’ll be great just to have him out there,” Ryans said. “And his presence will be felt.”
Felt, not just seen on the side amid tackling dummies and solo work as during the previous three weeks of camp.