BOSA EXPRESS AN INSPIRATION
The Niners defensive end’s comeback from ACL tear is one for the ages
SANTA CLARA >> When the 49ers had the NFL abuzz after winning five of six and being looked upon as a playoffs dark horse, Nick Bosa was riding the wave of positive press.
Bosa made the Pro Bowl and has drawn attention as the potential Comeback Player of the Year after an ACL tear ruined both his (and his team’s) 2020 season. Or Defensive Player of the Year. Heck, coach Kyle Shanahan wondered in an interview with broadcaster Greg Papa, why people aren’t talking about Bosa as the MVP.
A 20-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans, even with the 49ers still in charge of their playoff destiny, has somewhat slowed the Bosa express.
Kind of like the Titans did against the 49ers by allocating every resource at their disposal to prevent Bosa from wrecking the game and their own march to the playoffs. Bosa’s streak of six games with a sack ended, although a smart play by Tennessee guard and San Jose State product David Quessenberry may have saved the game for the Titans in the third quarter.
On second-and-8 and the Titans at their own 43, Bosa blew past Quessenberry and took dead aim on quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Except Quessenberry reached out and “tackled” Bosa, an obvious penalty that cost the Titans 10 yards instead of something potentially much worse. They went on to convert a thirdand-23 on a pass from Tannehill to A.J. Brown, and eventually scored on a Tannehill-to-Brown hookup for 18 yards and a 17-10 lead.
“Good play by him,” Bosa said, saluting Quessenberry’s tackle. “Better than a sack-fumble.”
Bosa ended up with no sacks
but did swallow up running back Dontrell Hilliard for an 8-yard loss on a running play. The Titans played max protection, committing a tight end to Bosa not to mention chip blocks from running backs. That’s what happens when you’re one of the NFL’s premier pass rushers — maybe the best in the game.
Trent Williams, the 49ers left tackle, seems to think so. I asked Williams last week what offensive linemen were facing in Bosa and it was as if he was describing a cyborg:
• “If you were to go into a lab and create a pass rusher, Nick Bosa would walk out.”
• “You talk about speed, quickness, power, and then you add the technique and the skill, you put all of that into one person, into a body that’s physically able to do anything, and you get a player like Nick Bosa.”
• “I feel sorry for the other team. I know people would say I’m bragging on him or have a biased opinion, but I said a few months ago he looked better and stronger than before the injury and people looked at me like I was crazy. I feel it’s starting to unfold before our eyes.”
Williams said he’d give Bosa an edge over his brother Joey, a star edge player for the Chargers, because Nick is more :”compact as an opposed to a guy who’s a little taller. Nick has the perfect frame where he can play fast, he can play powerful, he can play quick. He can beat you with speed, he can beat you with his hands, he can beat you any type of way he please.”
Unfortunately for Bosa, Williams doesn’t have a vote for Comeback Player of the Year or Defensive Player of the Year. And there’s no guarantee Bosa will win either one.
Candidates for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award will include Pittsburgh edge rusher T.J. Watt, Cleveland edge rusher Myles Garrett, Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and Dallas cornerback Trayvon Diggs. As for winning the Comeback Player of the Year, he’ll be up against Dak Prescott (Dallas) and former Ohio State teammate Joe Burrow (Cincinnati), and quarterbacks have historically had an advantage in terms of recognition.
Bosa didn’t just come back from a torn ACL that ended his 2020 season (and helped crush the 49ers hopes) in Week 2. As Williams said, he came back faster, quicker and better.
His 15 sacks trail Watt (17 1/2) and Chicago’s Robert Quinn (16), tying him with Garrett for third. Bosa’s 22 tackles for losses leads the league. Beating Aldon Smith’s franchise record of 19 1/2 sacks would be a tall order at this point with two games remaining.
But the numbers don’t matter as much as what you can see with your own eyes, and in that admittedly subjective category, Bosa is off the charts.
Surgery for an ACL tear isn’t what it used to be in terms of being a careerender, but it’s still not unusual for a player to need a year to get his feet back under him. Maybe they approach their previous standard, maybe not.
Bosa got the kid gloves treatment during training camp. He wasn’t restored to full practices until August and didn’t take a snap in a game until Week 1 against Detroit. It was fair to wonder if Bosa would play even half the snaps and make a gradual ascent to the form which made him the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2019.
The Thursday game on short rest aside, Bosa has gotten stronger as the season has gone along. In the last five games he’s played 80, 87, 82, 78 and 84 percent of defensive snaps.
The upward arc after a serious injury is rare but not unprecedented. Adrian Peterson had ACL, MCL surgery in December of 2011, his season cut short after 12 games and 870 yards. The next year, Peterson gained a careerhigh 2,097 yards and was the last non-quarterback to be the NFL’s MVP. while Peterson was piling up the yardage, Denver’s Von Miller went out in Week 5 with an ACL tear.
Then in 2013, Miller came back with 14 regular-season sacks and was the MVP for the Broncos in Super Bowl 50.
But here’s the unpredictable part of the Comeback Player of the Year — neither Peterson nor Miller won the award. Both times it went to quarterbacks — Peyton Manning in 2012 and Philip Rivers in 2013. Manning didn’t play at all in 2011 and had multiple neck surgeries so his comeback story was legit. Rivers, on the other hand, played all 16 games for a 7-9 team and the following year the Chargers were 9-7. He went from a soso season statistically to a very good one.
Whether Bosa wins an award or not hardly matters in the long run. If Bosa keeps improving at this rate, the best is yet to come.