The Extra Point

Nick Bosa was pretty dominant as a rookie in 2019 when his pass rush skills helped the San Francisco 49ers make it to the Super Bowl.

Bosa feels he's even better this season, a year removed from recon-structive knee surgery. He has some numbers to back it up.

After earning his third multi-sack game of the season last week at Jacksonville, Bosa has already set a career high with 10 sacks, surpassing the nine he had in 2019 when he won Defensive Rookie of the Year.

"I think I've definitely improved a lot," Bosa said. 9 think I'm starting to get the hang of just how to really get sacks, get numbers. My rookie year I was just out there rushing, trying to win every time, and it worked well. But now I'm really getting the hang of how the sack leaders in the league do it. They go out there with a plan and know when their opportunities are going to come, and they're ready for it." Bosa is once again one of those sack leaders, ranking fifth in the NFL in sacks, first in tackles for loss (15) and tied for third in quarterback hits (22). He's one tackle for loss and three quarterback hits from match-ing his impressive rookie total.

Bosa's bounce-back season has come after he tore the ACL in his knee in Week 2 last season, leaving a big void in San Francisco's defense.

The Niners (5-5) already have 23 sacks through 10 games this season, after getting only 30 last season.

"Bosa is a special player and he's just as valuable this year as he was his rookie year," coach Kyle Shana-han said. "He was the difference for us in 2019 and we missed him great-ly last year. You guys can see why again this year. I think he's getting better each week. I think he's play-ing his best ball right now of the year."