Will 49ers DE Nick Bosa Have a Bounce Back Season in 2024?

Bosa needs to raise his game this year. And there's reason to believe he will.

Grant Cohn | Jun 30, 2024

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) throws a pass against San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) in the second half in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Nick Bosa didn't play up to his standard in 2023.

He recorded 10.5 sacks -- his lowest output since 2020 when he missed all but two games with a torn ACL. His run defense was an issue. He wasn't a first-team or second-team All Pro. And he received zero votes for the Defensive Player of the Year Award while his teammate, Fred Warner, received seven. Which means Bosa wasn't even considered the best player on the 49ers defense even though he's the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL.

Bosa needs to raise his game this year. And there's reason to believe he will.

Bosa should be fully prepared for the upcoming season. Last year, Bosa held out of OTAs, minicamp, training camp and preseason last year and signed his extension only four days before the regular season opener. Which means he never participated in a full practice before he played in his full game. He wasn't prepared. And his performance suffered.

As a pass rusher, Bosa's moves and techniques suffered big time and he was easier to block. As a run defender, Bosa seemed oblivious all year to the barrage of crack-toss plays that were directed at him. He seemed to be hunting sacks and not getting them nearly as frequently as he did the past few years.

The 49ers pay Bosa $34 million per season. He needs to practice. He needs to be a perennial All Pro and Defensive Player of the Year Candidate. Needs to be their best pass rusher, their best run defender and their best all-around player on their defense.

Otherwise, he's simply overpaid.

Published Jun 10, 2024|Modified Jun 30, 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.